


Coffee Fixes the Universe

by I am not sure I like this show (thisisnotanendorsement)



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Established Relationship, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Torture, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Relationship, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2017-01-04
Packaged: 2018-09-11 16:27:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 22,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8998270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisisnotanendorsement/pseuds/I%20am%20not%20sure%20I%20like%20this%20show
Summary: Kara has memories people tell her make her crazy, of abilities and aliens. She's trying to live a normal life when she meets a guy in a coffee shop that she remembers and stumbles onto a world that both is and isn't from her dreams.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I had a couple of AU ideas nagging at me, and I've been trying hard to write an update for Past Crimes, but a part of me is convinced I can't continue it at all, so I tried this instead.
> 
> I'm still on the fence about it, too, but it's probably more viable than the other AU idea.

* * *

“Baby steps,” Kara reminded herself, not wanting to do anything that was going to get herself in trouble. She knew where she'd end up if she did, and she never, ever wanted to be back there. She knew she was lying to herself—to everyone—since the memories that made her crazy were still more real to her than the life she was leading now.

She clutched her bag tighter and went into the cafe. Public places were difficult for her, bringing up more false memories and delusions, ones that were sure to put her back in the hospital if she wasn't careful, and she was going to be very careful.

She couldn't fly, she didn't have super strength, and she was not an alien. That was all part of her illness, and she was not going to let that win. She was better than it, or so her doctors kept telling her. She wanted to believe them, but the only time she felt strong was when she gave into her illusions.

She waited in line, checking her watch twice as she waited, hoping that she wouldn't have to leave before she actually made it to the counter. Getting coffee was supposed to be something she enjoyed doing, at least as far as she could remember, and this was all a part of taking back her life and putting the past behind her.

She took a breath, letting it out as she turned her eyes to the board, trying to decide what she wanted. She'd thought she knew, but once she was next in line, that had all gone away. She was now torn between two drinks she swore she'd never had before but both sounded like something she had all the time.

She grimaced.

“What can I get for you?” a voice asked, and she stopped mid-step, almost afraid to look. The barista was doing his best not to frown at her, though she could see concern in his face—his very familiar face. She'd know those eyes anywhere, just like she knew his voice. “Miss?”

“Mon-El,” she said, and then he did frown, shaking his head with a slight smile.

“I'm afraid I haven't heard of that particular drink,” he said. “Though if you explain it to me, I'm willing to try and make it.”

“It's not a drink. It's your name.”

He laughed. “No, my name is Mike. People do call me Micheal and occasionally Mark, though, so I suppose it's not too far off. Would you like me to recommend a drink? I've been doing this for a while now, and I'm pretty good at figuring out what people want. I think you're a spiced pumpkin with extra foam and a bit of cinnamon sprinkled on top. How'd I do?”

That wasn't one of the drinks from the menu she'd been debating, but it sounded perfect—and just as familiar as he was. “Yes, that's me. My drink, I mean. That is so what I drink. I remember having it before.”

“That's funny,” he said, ringing up the drink. “I didn't think you were a regular.”

“I'm not,” she said. “I just... know that's my drink. My go-to.”

“Well, Miss Go-to, it'll be four seventy-eight, and can I get a name?”

“You need my name?” Kara asked, swallowing. He shouldn't need her name. He was Mon-El. They'd fought together, drank together, and even danced together.

“To put on the cup,” he explained. “That way they can call you when it's ready? Though I suppose if you wanted me to be asking for another reason...”

Kara's eyes widened. Did Mon-El think she was flirting with him? Was she flirting? No, but she was making a fool of herself. She didn't understand. She could pull up a hundred memories right now of things they'd done together, and it was almost painful to think he didn't know any of them.

Her doctors would remind her that she made all of that up, and that he didn't share those memories because they weren't real, but she'd never been to this coffee shop before. She knew that. She'd never even been to this city before her release from the hospital. This was her fresh start, so why was he here? She hadn't seen any of the others, but then she hadn't gone looking for them, either, not after how Alex reacted—leading to the whole commitment thing. 

“Or not,” Mon-El—Mike—said. “But you do still owe four seventy-eight. Assuming you actually do want that coffee.”

She shook herself out of her thoughts, digging into her bag and pulling out her wallet. She took out a five and handed it to him. “Sorry.”

“No worries,” he said, giving her a smile and handing her back her change. “I think that drink's waiting for you already.”

She nodded, about to leave when she stopped again. “You've never heard of a planet called Daxam, have you?”

“No, but then... science wasn't really my thing in school,” he answered. “Though... out of curiosity, why do you ask?”

“No reason,” she said, ducking her head and hurrying over to get her drink and get out of there before she embarrassed herself further. She pulled it off the counter, looking back at him again. He was busy talking to another customer, but then his eyes went in her direction again, and she felt it all over again.

She _knew_ him. She knew his name wasn't Mike, that he didn't belong here serving coffee, and that he could do all the things that she dreamed she could do in her so-called nightmares.

She also knew that if she told him that, he'd think she was insane, just like everyone else did.

* * *

“All right, Mister. Out with it.”

“Out with what?”

Caitlin put her hands on her hips, giving him that look, and he heard Cisco laughing, making him want to throw something at him. He didn't, mostly because he knew that if he did, Barry would just run and intercept it. He always did.

“Valor,” Caitlin said, using the name she'd given him and her lecture voice, “I know when something's bothering you. We all do. So you can either make it easy on yourself and tell us or we will resort to desperate measures.”

“You mean you'll sing karaoke again?” he asked with a wince, and her glare got meaner, though even Barry had snorted on that one. They all loved Caitlin, really, but she could not sing, and they all knew it. Even her.

“Mr. Allen, if you value your life at all—”

“Hey, I have very fond memories of our duets,” Barry said, smiling at her, and her expression softened for a moment. Trust them to get lost in the past. That was what they were good at, wasn't it? “Though Caitlin is right. You have been a little off all night. I mean, when a guy with superhearing doesn't seem to be listening, something's going on. What's up?”

He shook his head, looking around the room. STAR labs was about the only home he'd ever known, since he wouldn't call Eiling's base anything other than a prison and he couldn't remember before that. He usually found this place soothing, but right now, he still felt unsettled. Two words. That was all it took. 

Mon-El and Daxam.

What did those even mean? How could they even matter? They were just two random words that some stranger had said to him. They shouldn't bother him this much.

“Do you want me to vibe it? Because I can so vibe it if you want,” Cisco offered, and he shook his head. “Oh, come on. I know it didn't work before to help you get back any of your memories before Eiling, but on the more recent past? Totally should.”

“I just had a strange customer at Jitters today.”

“Are we going to have another conversation on why it's not that weird that women try and hit on you all the time?” Cisco asked. “Because dude, I'm totally straight but even I know that you've got appeal.”

“Too much appeal,” Barry agreed, and Caitlin rolled her eyes. “Okay, okay, so sometimes I wonder why you picked me and not him and sometimes—”

“You get irrationally jealous of our friendship,” Caitlin finished for him with a bit of a sigh. “I know. You have nothing to worry about.”

He wrapped his arms around her, and Cisco heaved a dramatic sigh. “They're starting to get mushy again. Either you've got to fess up to what's bothering you, or we have to find a new crisis to fight. And fast.”

“She called me Mon-El,” he said. “She said it was my name.”

“Hold up,” Cisco said. Barry let go of Caitlin, both of them tensing up. “Are we saying like... she somehow knew you before? We weren't able to find that information in any of Eiling's research. He wrote about you trying to escape, about his attempts to find some weakness so he could do all tests he wanted, and how he would have used you for military applications. No mention of where you came from or how you were exposed to the particle accelerator and then found by him. But then... why Mon-El? What kind of name is that?”

“It could be what you were using as a name after you gained your abilities in the particle accelerator explosion,” Barry suggested. “Though... Caitlin's choice is much better.”

“Mine was not bad,” Cisco said. “Come on. Superboy would have been awesome.”

“Except that Valor is very much a man,” Caitlin said, getting another look from Barry. “I have done detailed physiological workups on him, remember? I'm his physician, just like I'm yours. Well, not exactly like I'm yours—”

“TMI,” Cisco said, though they were only like this around him because it bothered him so much. They weren't as overly affectionate when he wasn't around to make a fuss about it. Normally, it was funny. Today, not so much.

“She asked me about Daxam. If I'd ever heard of it. It's supposedly a planet,” he added. “I don't know. She was... odd. Part Felicity charming, part... unsettling. I don't know what to think of what she said. I was able to guess her drink—”

“Except we established that eighty percent of women will lie and accept whatever you come up with because they're flirting with you,” Cisco said. The others looked at him. “What? It was a slow meta day, and the Flash had the city in hand.”

“Sometimes I wonder if you two take the science too far,” Barry said, shaking his head. “You do actually work part of the time, right?”

“We work,” Cisco said, getting defensive. “Though most of it is consultation these days since STAR labs is sort of... dead.”

Barry grimaced. They couldn't do much about that, not with Wells gone and the building partially destroyed and quarantined. Still, they had some income from patents, and Cisco was always talking about making more toys to sell as long as the Flash didn't need them and it wouldn't compromise Barry's identity or anyone else's.

“Do you think that it's worth trying to find this woman?” Caitlin asked. “If she did know about your past, maybe she knows something that can help us find where you really belong.”

“Um, that would be here,” Cisco said. “We certified him a member of Team Flash months ago.”

“Yes, but what if he has a family out there that's missing him? Is it right to keep him from them if we can find them?” Caitlin asked. She sighed. “I don't really want to have that debate again. I think it is important to find out about Valor's past even if we want to keep him here with us.”

“I agree,” Barry said. “We should find out what she knows, if anything.”

“I can get Jitters' security footage, do a little backtracking, find her, and start running facial recognition,” Cisco said, turning to his computer. “What am I looking for?”

“Um...” he began, lifting a finger to point across the room. “Her.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara's appearance in STAR labs raises plenty of questions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of the harder parts of trying to build a new AU is not doing an info dump. There is so much to explain with this one, and I am trying really hard not to just blurt all of that out in some annoying way (also, it's not something the characters know, so... there's that.)
> 
> I have so much to explain here, unfortunately. I knew it was a bad idea to start something that would end up big again, but I did. And I still don't have anything for the other mess I should finish.

* * *

Kara knew that she should just go home. That was the sane, reasonable thing to do. She would go back to her life, back to the mundane that was being a normal person, not the one in her dreams. Not that they were all dreams, they came when she was awake, too, but that just made her more crazy. She closed her eyes, trying to shake it off, but then she caught the scent of her coffee.

Pumpkin, with extra foam and cinnamon sprinkles. That was her. Not the her of the drugs and the mental hospital and the going through the motions to seem normal, but the her that felt real and alive, the one that had amazing abilities and helped people and was more than just an automaton.

She stared at the cup for hours, even after it got cold. In her other life, she could have heated it in an instant. She wanted that. Maybe she was being a fool because she dreamt up these things that would make her life so much easier, but it wasn't just that. She felt like she'd lost herself, and this person she was now—she didn't feel whole.

Would it be enough if she was able to befriend this person who called himself Mike but that she knew as Mon-El? Maybe her dreaming about him was... innocent. Every girl pictured the guy she wanted to meet, didn't they?

Okay, that didn't really explain the complex not-quite relationship she remembered having with Mon-El or why she wasn't seeing James when she apparently had felt rather strongly about him for a while.

She wanted to ask Alex about all of this, but Alex wasn't her sister. That was some strange delusion she'd conjured up, and the Danvers family didn't know her. She still had that name because no one knew what else to call her, but they'd never adopted her.

Her doctors had called it the Anastasia syndrome once, named for a woman who blocked out her own life and became convinced that she was, in fact, the missing princess Anastasia Romanov. Kara hadn't chosen to become a princess, but she'd still somehow invented a family for herself that she didn't have—along with friends, a job, and superpowers.

She shook her head, trying to convince herself to leave the bench and go back to her apartment. They'd helped her decorate it, and it looked wonderful. She was rehabilitated now, that was the lie she'd sold them, and they were looking forward to seeing her succeed.

They'd be so angry if they knew she'd fallen off the wagon only a few days after her release—and that it was all because of a cup of coffee.

She rose, but then something on the skyline caught her eye. STAR labs. Even with the damage from the particle accelerator, it stood out against the sunset. She swallowed. That building—the company—didn't exist in her dreamworld, which was part of why they told her she was wrong about everything.

If it really did exist, though, then the man she'd met that knew about it would exist. Barry Allen, the Flash. She wondered if she'd chosen Central City on purpose, not admitting it even to herself, so that she could come here, where she thought that Barry might be.

She didn't know. She wouldn't have thought they'd let her near a place where powers were real, not with her kind of delusions, but then they hadn't stopped her. She had a home, a new therapist, and she was set to start her job tomorrow.

And yet she wanted to throw that all away and go to STAR labs, to see if Barry was there. She didn't know why—he was going to be another stranger to her, and he'd think she was just as insane as everyone else did.

Still, she had to know. It would settle her doubts once and for all, wouldn't it? She'd go to STAR labs, and if there was no Barry, no Caitlin, no Cisco, then she'd know. She'd be sure it was all her imagination—her illness—and she'd go back to her life, such as it was.

She threw the coffee cup in the trash and started walking.

* * *

“How did you get in here?” Cisco asked, frowning. “Most of the entrances have guards—we have one exception because we need it for—well, we need it—and there is a security system even where there aren't guards. You shouldn't be here. This shouldn't be happening. How is this happening?”

“I knew the code,” the woman answered, and Cisco shook his head. Sure, they couldn't know who all Wells had given the security codes to before he died, but they'd also changed them. All of them. The only people who knew were in this room. Well, in the Arrowcave. And Joe. Okay, so there were more people that knew the codes than should, maybe, but they were all trusted members of Team Flash or Team Arrow, and they wouldn't give that information away.

Except...

“Tell me this is not one of your coffee hookups,” Cisco said, turning to Valor. “Dude, you know the rules.”

“I didn't tell her,” he protested. “I'd have had to be very drunk to let something like that slip, and you know I can't drink.”

“He has a point,” Caitlin said, though she bit her lip as she looked at the intruder. Cisco grimaced. A meta mindreader? Was that what this girl was? Had she gotten something from Valor when he was working his day job? Man, that was such a bad idea, but it wasn't like he could stay here all the time. He didn't have the background in science any of the others did, and Barry only hung onto his day job because he was fast—and Joe covered for him.

Maybe it was time to go Flash full time. Not like the people in his life didn't already know who he was, and as long as STAR labs held onto certain patents and Barry owned STAR labs, he could do it. 

“Mon-El didn't give me the code,” the woman said, “Barry did.”

Caitlin's eyes widened, and she looked at him in confusion. “You... know her? You didn't tell us you knew her.”

“I don't,” Barry said. “I have never seen her before, and you know I wouldn't give the codes out to anyone. I wouldn't let anything happen to you. To any of you.”

The woman put a hand to her head. “This doesn't make sense. They told me I was crazy, but if I'm crazy, how do I have the code to STAR labs? Why do I know that he's Barry, you're Cisco, and she's Caitlin? They never could explain that to me, why I'd know random strangers and think they were friends or family. It's not like I could invent such elaborate stories in an instant, and I knew that Barry Allen was the Flash before I came here.”

“Whoa, this is not good,” Cisco said. “Who told you that? Was it—are we dealing with Alchemy again?”

“I have no idea,” Barry said, still frowning. “It—Who are you?”

“Kara Danvers. Well, sort of,” she answered. “They said the Danvers never adopted me, so I shouldn't be a Danvers, but I am. I'm also... not. I'm Kara Zor-El.”

“Does that make you two related somehow?” Cisco asked, pointing in between Valor and her. His friend glared at him. “Hey, you don't know, remember?”

“Not the point,” Valor muttered. “She just said she was crazy. Maybe we should get her back to the looney bin before she tells everyone that Barry is the Flash.”

“Or we could find out how she might know,” Caitlin said, turning to Cisco. “You want to do the honors?”

Cisco didn't, actually, because vibing someone cray-cray was not cool, but they did need to know if she was a threat or not. If she was just run of the mill crazy, though, they could get her locked up and no one would believe what she said about Barry. He started toward her, and she frowned, swallowing like she was about to run. Barry could stop her, but then he'd confirm it, wouldn't he?

“Okay, just hold out your hand,” Cisco said. “Promise this won't hurt. Won't take more than a second, either.”

She bit her lip, but she forced herself to nod and held out her hand. Cisco started to take it and stopped. “Damn.”

“What?” Kara asked, jumping back from him. “What's wrong with me? Or is it you? Oh, I never should have come here. I was wrong, but I thought it would help, but it hasn't helped, and I really should just—”

“Calm down,” Caitlin said, joining them, and Cisco didn't doubt that she had a sedative in her hands. “We're all just trying to understand.”

“Do me a favor and show Caitlin that bracelet you have,” Cisco said, and Kara frowned, but she did as he asked.

“It's for my medication,” Kara said. “State of the art, they said. Should keep me regulated enough to function in the real world. That was what they said. They... is it broken? Is that why you're all looking so worried and why I can't get rid of the dreams?”

“Um,” Caitlin began. “We are probably going to need to do some diagnostics on it. Just... excuse us for one second, okay?”

She nodded, and Caitlin stabbed her with the syringe before she could react. Barry zoomed over and caught her before she fell.

“Really, guys?” Barry asked as he picked her up. “I know she kind of broke in, but was that necessary?”

“Look at her wrist, Barry.”

He held it up and swallowed. “Is this what I think it is?”

Cisco nodded, giving Valor a glance before answering. Their friend was staring at it, about to start hyperventilating. That was answer enough, wasn't it? “Sure looks like it's what they used on him. One little black band of regulated poison.”

* * *

“Well?” Barry prompted, knowing he wasn't the only impatient one. If they didn't get an answer soon, they'd have to sedate someone else, which meant exposing him to lead again. That was not something that Barry wanted to do. Caitlin would hate herself if she did. She was still worried about the cumulative effect on their friend, and she wasn't the only one.

“It's radioactive,” Cisco said, frowning over the device. “That thing is actually giving off radiation.”

“Then it's not lead,” Caitlin said, looking over at Valor. “We know your weakness is lead. That's what Eiling used to keep you too weak to escape, but if they're not using lead on her—does that mean she's not like you?”

“I don't know,” Valor said, folding his arms over his chest. “I told you—I don't know her. She wasn't one of Eiling's prisoners when I was, not like Grodd or Firestorm.”

“We're not expecting you to have all the answers,” Barry told him, not wanting him to get more upset than he already was. This had to be hard enough, bringing up all those memories of what Eiling had done to him, and they didn't need to push for answers they already knew Valor didn't have.

“I'm not sure we should take it off until we know more about her and what she's capable of,” Caitlin said. Barry frowned, not sure how that could be coming from her. “If her powers are like Valor's she's going to be hard to contain, and we don't know what she's doing here. She knows things about us, things that could be dangerous. All I am saying is that we need more information.”

“Right, and that would be where I come in,” Cisco said. “Stand back, let me do my thing.”

He picked up her hand and closed his eyes, concentrating. Barry waited. He knew that Cisco's ability could tell them more in a few minutes than the tests Caitlin would run that would take hours. He just hoped that it would work, unlike what happened when they tried to do this for Valor when they found him.

Cisco backed away. “Okay, that was weird.”

“What did you see?”

“A burning world right out of a scifi film,” Cisco answered. “Not much about her, though. That's a problem.”

“And that's it?” Valor asked. “You're just going to stand back and leave it at that? How many times did you try and vibe me? You're still offering to do it on me. At least once a week.”

Cisco grimaced. “Well, it would be nice to take a minute before I do it again, okay?”

Valor started to say something, and Barry held up a hand. “I think we could all use a few minutes. In fact, I'm starving, again, so I'll go make a quick run for food. When I get back, Cisco will try again, and maybe some of the tests will be done by then.”

“You are being overly optimistic,” Caitlin said. “Though it is one of your more charming qualities, you can't speed up those tests by will alone.”

He smiled at her, giving her cheek a quick kiss before rushing off. “Just for that, I'm getting your favorite.”

“You always do,” Cisco called after him.

* * *

_“I was thinking that we could do something normal for a change,” Kara said, and Mon-El gave her a look. She sighed. They didn't do much outside of their work at the DEO, and every time she tried to teach him about earth, they ended up interrupted by some kind of crisis._

_“Since when does Supergirl do normal?” Mon-El asked, grinning as he did. She liked that smile. He seemed genuinely happy when he looked like that, not the Daxamite that had lost his entire planet and was pretending he was fine._

_“I think we need to try. Again,” she said, and then she almost screamed, covering her ears to fight the pain, aware that Mon-El was doing the same next to her._

_“It is time,” Cadmus said. “Time at last to end the threat of the alien menace once and for all. We will make sure that they no longer harm our world and threaten our children. Soon, the earth will be free of their kind forever.”_

_The buzzing ended, and Mon-El looked at Kara with a frown. “I thought they couldn't use that virus, and the police arrested Luther. What are they talking about?”_

_“I don't know, but whatever it is, I have to stop it,” Kara said, ducking into the alley, pulling him along with her. “Stay here. Cadmus knows your weakness. They could kill you.”_

_“They're going to kill all the aliens on the planet. Seems to me I'll die either way,” he said, and she nodded. They were in this together, then._

_Maybe for the last time._


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Flash discusses what they know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... um... this gets complicated now. I'm probably wrong on the science, but then it's all pseudo-science anyway, so that's not quite as bad, right?
> 
> And, no, it's not quite as explained yet, but it's trying to get there. It just... had to end where it did.

* * *

“So, wait, not only did this woman know Valor, they were some kind of crime fighting duo?” Caitlin asked, frowning before taking another bite of her food. Barry had gotten her favorite again, but then he got everyone's favorite including his own. He'd gotten a lot more of his own, but then he did have a calorie intake to worry about, one he wasn't always the best about remembering. His diet should be affecting him more, though if she tried to bring that up again, she'd be nagging, and she hated that.

Even if she suspected she did it a lot. It was hard not to when almost everyone she considered family were heroes that rushed right out into danger.

“Well, I'm not sure. I mean, they were fighting against something called Cadmus—”

“Which we all know is a Greek legend who created the alphabet and fought monsters—”

“Actually, we didn't,” Valor said, and she grimaced. Though he'd done his best to catch up, his efforts were mainly done under Cisco's coaching which left him with a very geek influenced slant toward pop culture. The women who had come and gone had also helped him with the information gap following his memory loss—it was like he knew nothing of the world besides Eiling—but none of them had lasted long enough to make any real impact.

She figured he was afraid to commit to anyone when he might have a whole family out there and not know it.

“Right, I'm sorry,” she told him. “You've come a long way since those days where we had to explain every little thing to you. I think I started to take that for granted.”

He nodded, smiling back at her. “I've been working on it.”

“It helps when you don't need as much sleep,” Cisco said. “Still can't believe you watched the rest of the Lord of the Rings without me.”

“You fell asleep during the Hobbit, and I was curious,” Valor said with a small frown.

“Guys,” Barry broke in, “can we get back to what this vibe might actually mean?”

“Well, either our girl her has one active fantasy life that shows itself like the real thing and is some kind of super cool scifi writer, or she somehow lived a life with Valor—Mon-El—here that we know nothing about.”

“Are we thinking that they knew each other before the particle accelerator exploded?” Barry asked. “They were fighting crime _before_ the explosion?”

“Look, the vibes I get aren't date stamped,” Cisco said, getting a little defensive. “I mean, it's kind of safe to assume that if it happened, it had to be before the explosion because after that Eiling had him, but it's still weird. Was Mon-El your crime fighting name? Or is that just something she used because she calls herself Kara Zor-El?”

Valor folded his arms over his chest. “Are you actually asking me that? You know I don't remember anything. Before Eiling is a complete blank. I don't know if he did that to me or something else did, but it's gone. So far gone that even your vibes can't get it back.”

Cisco winced. “I know. I just... you know, with her seeming to know you... I was hoping maybe it would jog something. Still nothing?”

“It's all gone,” Valor said, and Caitlin heard the frustration coming back into his voice. He'd never really been able to accept it, for all that he would put on a brave face and smile, making jokes and chasing fun to hide the pain. He had no memory except for the kind no one wanted after spending months as Eiling's favorite experiment.

“Not all of it,” Caitlin disagreed, crossing over to put her hand above his heart. “You never lost this, remember? That's why we call you Valor—you have a good heart.”

He snorted, and she gave him a look before turning back to Cisco and Barry in turn. Valor pulled away from her. “No. No group hugs.”

“Too late, buddy,” Barry said, having pulled Cisco with him before Valor used his own speed to get away from them.

“I hate that you do this.”

“No, you love it just like you love us,” Cisco told him, patting him on the back before letting him out of the hug. Then he sighed. “Seriously, though, I do want to know why your memories never come through when I try and vibe you. At least—none of the ones that matter. I did not need another one of you and your coffee obsession.”

Valor shrugged. “I work in a coffee shop. It tends to be on my mind.”

“Boys,” Caitlin said, shaking her head at the two of them. “We should get back to the issue at hand. She's not going to sleep forever, and we need to know what we're going to do when she wakes up. Besides talk to her, of course.”

“Let me see if I get anything else from her,” Cisco said. “How much longer on your tests?”

“Well, it's still going to take a while to finish analyzing her DNA, but her blood work so far is completely normal, as are the other readings. She's perfectly healthy, which should be impossible because she's clearly being exposed to radiation.”

“Yeah, but we know that Eiling was able to use lead to lower Valor down to what he considered 'normal level.' Meaning when he was dosed with lead, he was just as vulnerable as any human,” Barry said. “When he's not on lead—”

“He reads higher than most humans, just like you do,” Caitlin said, biting her lip. “If she is being controlled the way that Eiling had Valor, then we should remove it, but without knowing what she might do—”

“Hey, she's a crime fighting alien. How bad could it be?”

Caitlin frowned. “Alien?”

Cisco grimaced. “Did I not mention that before?”

“No, you didn't.”

* * *

“So she's just crazy, then,” Valor said after Cisco had finished telling them everything that he could about the vibe. He looked at the woman again, shaking his head. He didn't know her. The words she'd said—Daxam and Mon-El, they made him wonder, but he swore if he knew her, he'd remember her. “Simple. Let's take her back to whatever hospital she belongs in and keep her there.”

“You're jumping to conclusions, and no, we're not just dumping her in a hospital. We haven't explained her particular brand of crazy yet. I mean, there has to be a reason for all of this,” Cisco said, and Valor looked at him. Cisco wanted his vibes to always have meaning, to show them something of value, but that didn't mean that they always would. “She knows us, right? And that means... well, it means we need to know how before we go locking her up again.”

“I have to agree,” Caitlin said, and Valor frowned, not sure why everyone was so convinced that Kara could tell them anything. “I know it's partially the scientist in us, but we need to understand. I am a little worried by how quick you are to dismiss everything that she might know about you. You have been without a memory for long enough. It has been over a year since you've been with us, and nothing has come back to you, and you never got anything when you were with Eiling. He called you a number. You deserve more than that. Maybe she is how you find out who you really are.”

“Caitlin, she is insane. She thinks she's an alien superhero.”

“Dude, you _are_ a superhero. Barry has speed, and so do you. You're not as fast, but you're practically invulnerable. You have super strength. The ability to leap buildings in a single bound,” Cisco said, grinning. Valor did not need or want a reminder of his powers. Sometimes he wished he'd never gotten them. “Why would it be so impossible to believe that she has powers? Or that she got them because she's an alien?”

Valor looked at them. “You all said I was a metahuman. Now you're saying that I'm an alien?”

“Admittedly,” Caitlin said, twisting her lip a little before she spoke, and he could tell that she was reluctant to say what she was about to say. “We know a lot less about aliens and their physiology than we do metahumans. We have only encountered them once, and that... it didn't really go that well.”

“If by not well you mean Barry almost handed himself over to them like an idiot, then yeah, it didn't go well,” Cisco said, rolling his eyes again when he looked at Barry. Then he turned to Valor. “Seriously, man, we still owe you for that, big time.”

Valor gave him a slight smile. He didn't feel like he'd done much of anything. He'd stepped forward with a speech stolen from a childhood story and somehow bluffed the Dominators into backing off Barry long enough for them to fight back.

“Does being an alien bother you that much?” Barry asked, frowning. “I mean, being a metahuman is cool, right? Why not an alien? Clearly you're not the same species as the Dominators. You appear human. So does she. Still, Cisco said both of you referred to yourselves as aliens and were afraid of what Cadmus was doing, that it would kill you.”

“And we're still basing all of that on this apparently crazy person's vibe,” Valor protested. He didn't want to be an alien even if he didn't look like the Dominators. And if he was, where was his planet? His people? Were they all here masquerading as humans? Was he the only one left? What if they were already invading, like the Dominators tried? Maybe it was better if he never knew what he was—what if he hated humans when he was an alien?

There were too many reasons why being an alien was not good, and none of the others seemed to see them at all. 

“Why are we trusting that?” Valor demanded. “I'm not questioning Just because she says she knows us—she doesn't. None of us remember her. And while Grodd has telepathy, he was never able to make us forget anything. No. We should not assume anything about this woman just because she claims to know us.”

“You're afraid of what she might know about your past,” Barry said, frowning. “I didn't think—I mean, before, you've always been so frustrated by not knowing who or what you were, and now we might, but you're afraid of it, aren't you?”

He didn't want to answer that. He'd never felt like he deserved the name Valor. The name spoke of bravery, facing battle with honor and a lot of other things that didn't feel like him. Caitlin said he had a good heart, but what he had was no memory. He could have been anything before this, and if he was an alien, who was to say he was a nice one? Maybe he wanted to enslave people as much as the Dominators did.

Maybe that was why the Dominators had backed down.

“Okay, first off, you're friends with a hot chick with powers,” Cisco said, and Caitlin gave him a look. He ignored it. “We're pretty sure she has powers, at least, since they've got her banded up like they did you. Second, the two of you were going off to fight evil together. That means that you are a good person. You were going to save the world. That's awesome.”

“You're still basing that on a vibe from her.”

“I know, and it's really just one so far, but I'm willing to look again and see if I can find out more,” Cisco said. “You don't have to be afraid. I'll prove it.”

“With a vibe?”

Cisco frowned. “Does that mean that you don't trust me anymore?”

“No.”

“Then chill. I got this.”

* * *

_“I found it,” Kara said, looking down at the device. The sequence was counting back, seconds disappearing with a speed that made her, of all people, sick to her stomach. She took out her phone, snapping a picture and sending it to Winn. “I just sent you a picture of the device. Can we disable it?”_

_“Hold on a second let me take a look and—damn,” Winn said on the other end of her comms. “That is... Okay, hold on, don't panic.”_

_“I'm not.”_

_“I was talking to myself,” Winn said, and she smiled for just a second, not able to keep it when the seconds kept counting down. “Kara, this thing...”_

_“It's just a bomb, right?” Kara asked, taking a step closer to the bomb so that she could grabe it.“I can fly it up into the sky or out into the water, get it far enough from the city to destroy it and keep everyone safe.”_

_“I'm not so sure that will work. That thing has about a dozen failsafes on it. You move it, and it will explode. The temperature drops, it'll explode. It rises, boom. Cadmus knows you. They know what you'd do to disable this thing, and they've put in things to stop it. We've got motion detection, temperature regulation, and tamper guards. This thing will go off if you look at it funny.”_

_“Winn, there isn't much left on that timer. We have to do something,” Kara insisted. “If this is Medusa, it needs a dispersal agent, doesn't it? It'll be released into the air, so I can just—”_

_“It's not just a virus, and there's no sign of the isotope in that room.”_

_“Then... what? What is it? What are they planning? How can they possible hope to end the alien threat with this?”_

_“By leveling National City,” J'onn said, and she swallowed. “Your cousin got the same message in Metropolis. He's looking at the same bomb.”_

_“I thought the purpose of Cadmus was to protect humans from aliens. If they detonate these things, they'll kill everyone here and in Metropolis, humans and aliens alike.”_

_“But they'd be eliminating two known safe havens for aliens, possibly more. To them, this is a war, and that means sacrifice. They're so blinded by their hatred that they're willing to destroy entire cities to get to us.”_

_“This can't be right. They can't be going that far,” Kara said. “This is too much.”_

_“Your cousin believes he might be able to contain the blast with his body, but it's only containment. It won't stop it. There will still be casualties.”_

_“Including Clark,” Kara said, feeling sick all over again. “He can't—but I... I have to, don't I? Everyone will die if I don't. At least this way I might save some of them...”_

_Alex' voice came over the line then, anguished. “You can't.”_

_“What else can we do? Walk away and let everyone die?” Kara asked, shaking her head. She looked up when she heard something at the door. “Mon-El. Oh, Rao. You're bleeding. You were shot.”_

_He stumbled into the room, and she rushed over to catch him. She eased him to the floor, covering the wound on his chest with her hand. He looked up at her and forced a smile. “Guess you won. Found the bomb first. I... kind of found something else.”_

_“I don't understand. They're planning on bombing the entire city,” she said. “I didn't see anyone, didn't find any resistance... There shouldn't even be any. Everyone here will die.”_

_“Fanatics,” Mon-El said, closing his eyes. “Just as annoying here... as on Daxam.”_

_“Stay with me,” she said, but he didn't even look at her. She closed her own eyes, combing her fingers through his hair. “I'm sorry. I should have been with you. Should have protected you, protected everyone...”_

_“Kara, the bomb—”_

_“I'm on it,” she said. She set Mon-El on the ground as gently as possible and forced herself to her feet. She reached the bomb just as the last second disappeared, and then the whole room exploded with light._


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Valor disagrees with the others' plan, and a new theory emerges.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This should, I hope, clear up a lot more or explain a bit more of what I'm really doing here. I meant what I said about the info dump. This story almost needs one, since it's kind of... convoluted in some ways and yet not all the same.

* * *

“Cisco, get off me,” Valor said, trying to push the other man off, though for being smaller and not having strength as a part of his meta abilities, he had one hell of a grip. Though he knew that he could have broken a few things and gotten free, he didn't want to hurt him. He just didn't want to be touched right now.

“You're not dead,” Cisco said, trying to tighten his grip. “You're alive. Dude, you have to _stay_ alive. No dying. I know you're supposed to be invulnerable, and we have protection for you in that suit, my awesome very protective keep you alive suit—but you are so not allowed to die. I cannot take that again.”

“What?”

Barry took a step closer to them, touching Cisco's arm. “Are you saying... you vibed Valor dying? Like... in the future?”

“Well, it would be kind of hard for it to be the past because he would be dead now, and he is very clearly not,” Cisco said. He shivered, running his hands over his arms. “Still, I definitely saw him bleeding and going down hard to lead like we know he does if he gets exposed. He died. I'm almost certain he died. And then the bomb went off.”

“There was a bomb, too?” Caitlin asked, frowning. “And... this is what she saw? So if we... let her stay, Valor will die?”

“Absolutely not happening,” Cisco said, looking back at the unconscious woman. “She goes away. Like, right now.”

“Hold on,” Barry said. “We are sending her away because of one vibe, either. We don't know that this wasn't something in the past. Valor has actually survived explosions before. Not when he was wounded and exposed to lead, but... he did. More than once, even.”

“Yes, but if Valor was in an explosion, we would know about it,” Caitlin said, and Cisco started to shake his head. She held up a hand. “Valor does have scars. He can be hurt when he's exposed to lead. If he survived an explosion like that, there would be signs of it, just like there are signs of what Eiling did to him.”

Valor gave her a look. Why did they always have to talk about that? He did not want to remember any of that time. He refused. It was over, done, and best forgotten. Eiling's experiments were horrible, but thanks to his messed up genetics, he'd survived everything that the general had put him through.

He was alive. He sometimes wasn't sure he wanted to be.

“So... it's a future event,” Cisco said. “That settles it. We keep them apart, and we stop it. All of it. Then he's safe.”

Valor shook his head. “No. You're all overreacting to some crazy person. None of what you saw in that vibe was real. I'm not going to die in an explosion. Not going to get shot. I do not know who she is, but she doesn't know me like you think she does. Stop assuming she does.”

“Hey,” Caitlin began, “are you sure you're... okay? Is this—you're not remembering something? Or is this still fear of what she might know of you?”

“She doesn't know me. How many times do I have to say it?” Valor demanded, shaking his head. He was not doing this. “She is _nothing_ to me. She doesn't know me, we are not trusting her, and I want nothing more to do with any of this.”

“Valor, wait,” Cisco said, but he wasn't staying for this. Not even Barry would stop him. That was not happening.

He was halfway down the hall when Barry caught up to him. He got in front of him, trying to block his path.

“You don't have to do this. Don't go.”

Valor snorted. “Why should I stay? What I think doesn't matter. Only Cisco's vibes do. I'm standing here, telling you that I don't know her, that I don't trust any of this, and you're all ignoring me. I don't care if I didn't have a memory when you found me. That does not make anything she knows about me true. She doesn't know _me.”_

“No, you're right,” Barry said, and Valor frowned. “Even if she did know you before, she doesn't know the you we know. That you... you found that after you came to us, and it has been our honor to know him. I hope you know that. This isn't—we may have been overeager to learn about her and what she might know about you—about all of us. Sometimes we all get carried away with the science. Or other things. We thought we were helping you.”

“You're not.”

Barry winced. “I know. I'm sorry. That's not—that will change. We still need to know what she knows about us and how she knows it.”

“No. We don't need anything from her. She says she's crazy, and since she is, no one will believe her. Your secret—everyone's secret—is safe. If you don't think it is, then lock her away,” Valor told him. “Just stop trying to prove that it has anything to do with me. It doesn't. She doesn't know me. Stop thinking that she does.”

Barry frowned. “Valor—”

“I mean it. I want nothing to do with her, and if you keep doing this, I'm not so sure I'll want anything to do with you. Any of you.”

“Come on, That's not—”

“Not fair?” Valor asked. “Maybe not, but you're sitting there assuming that I somehow died or survived an explosion. That I'm an alien. All of this is based on Cisco's vibes—and I do trust them, but something is wrong here and none of you see it. None of you are questioning any of what she 'knows.' Why the hell not? Why is her possible memory something we're taking at any kind of face value?”

“We're still getting information—”

“And _trusting_ it. You're deciding my fate or my past based on her. No. I won't do it. I'm done.”

* * *

“He left?”

Barry nodded. He could have forced the issue, fought it out with Valor, but he didn't want to. He wasn't all wrong. He had raised some valid points none of them were considering, which Barry wished they had before they pushed him away. Yes, it was an overreaction, but that didn't mean that he didn't have some reason to feel the way he did.

“You could have stopped him,” Cisco said, and Barry had to agree with that, too.

“I could have, but I didn't,” Barry said. “Look, we're all jumping to a lot of conclusions here. Just because this woman says she knows us doesn't mean she does. Cisco's vibes haven't shown us that. They've only—”

“She definitely knew Valor. She called him Mon-El, but I know that face, okay?” Cisco shook his head. “Do not tell me I don't know what I saw. I saw our boy. I saw him die. It was hella creepy and wrong, okay? No, I don't want to see that again, which is why I wanted to prevent her from ever going near him again.”

“Except,” Caitiln said, rising from her chair as she started to pace. “What if she doesn't actually know him? We've all been operating under the assumption that she knew our Valor, but who's to say that she did? Remember—I looked for Jay's doppelganger thinking I could cure him, and when I found him, he was called Hunter Zolomon. That should have been our first clue that Jay wasn't what he said he was, but I ignored it. I don't want to make that mistake again.”

Cisco frowned. “Are you saying you think maybe she's from another universe?”

“Just because Valor doesn't remember his past doesn't mean that she does. She remembers hers—and even she admitted that she's not sure about that,” Caitlin said. “Why are we assuming that she does know him? This could be some kind of trap. Eiling didn't experiment alone.”

“Except she's a superhero who was willing to sacrifice herself to save the world,” Cisco said. “You can't fake that kind of thing in a vibe.”

“We actually don't know all there is to know about your vibes yet,” Barry reminded him. “You said she could have had an active imagination.”

“Yeah, but we don't know that she does. No one has ever fooled one of my vibes, not even my evil twin.” Cisco shook his head. “No. That was real.”

“Was it?” Caitlin asked. “Think about it. Barry tracked the impossible for years before the particle accelerator exploded. He would have known if some alien was fighting crime in another city. And we would all have heard about the kinds of explosions you described. It was supposed to level the city. If that bomb had gone off, wouldn't we know about it?”

Cisco frowned. “Okay, yes, we would have known.”

“She claimed to know us, know secrets about us and things we wouldn't have told people we didn't trust,” Barry added. “Yet none of us remember her. What if she worked with us but not us?”

“Okay, that would also explain things. It's even maybe a little cool,” Cisco said, warming to the idea a little. “Still, if she's from some other reality, how'd she get here? And what are we going to do with her?”

“She still might know things about the alternate version of Valor that could help us, and you can keep testing our theory,” Barry told him. “I'm not sure that's going to help with Valor. He was... pretty upset.”

“Give him a few hours,” Caitlin said. “And then I'll try talking to him.”

“That usually works,” Cisco agreed, yawning. “One more vibe, and then I'm getting some shut eye. This dude has an overdue date with his pillow.”

* * *

_“Hey, Kara. I made you something,” Cisco said as he walked up to the others. He had just barely finished it before the big party, but hey, that was what a replicator like the one on the Waverider was for. If he could use that thing all the time, he'd be in heaven._

_“What?” Kara asked, and he handed it over to her with a smile. She picked it up from her palm and frowned at it. “Cisco, it's great. Really.”_

_“You don't like it?” He asked, feigning hurt._

_“What... um... What is it?”_

_“Oh, it's a... It's an interdimensional extrapolator,” Cisco answered, very proud of his creation. This thing was going to change the multiverse._

_“Oh,” Kara said, still frowning, and he was afraid she might heat vision it in a second._

_“It creates small breaches,” he explained, “so you can use it to cross over to our universe any time you need to.”_

_“Oh, Rao,” she said, smiling at him with more happiness than he'd sworn she'd had all night, but then again, Mon-El had said he was staying here and not going back with her, so that probably had a lot to do with it. “That's amazing.”_

_“I also included communication functionality,” Cisco told her, “so if you ever need any help, you can always contact the team.”_

_“This is wonderful,” she said, giving him a hug that almost crushed him._

_“No problem,” he choked out, fighting against the compression of his chest, “though between you and me... You should probably just talk to him.”_

_“What?”_

* * *

Kara sat up, putting a hand to her head. She looked around the room, not sure where she was. This wasn't her hospital—she knew that room too well—but it had some of the same kind of equipment. She winced. They'd locked her back up again, hadn't they? She was going to be in a padded cell for the rest of her life.

She turned, needing to get out of this bed if she could. She wanted to be out of here, but she didn't think she'd make it past the door, even if it was made of glass this time.

That brought her face-to-face with the woman from yesterday. Caitlin. Kara supposed she'd scared her enough for her to worry over her even after bringing her to the hospital. That was what she remembered of the Caitlin in her dream world, and Alex had done the same thing. Kara had thought, seeing her there, that things had changed and her sister remembered her, but Alex didn't.

“How are you feeling?”

“A bit like I got hit by a truck,” Kara admitted. “Then again, I'm pretty sure I know that drug, and it _does_ it like a truck.”

“Sorry.”

“It's not the first time I've been sedated for talking crazy,” Kara admitted. “I... I know I should stop, but they just seem so real and—Mon-El. Where is he?”

“At work.”

“Mon-El has a job?”

Caitlin smiled. “Yes, he does, and he likes to argue that he works more than we do. Most of what Cisco and I do here is theoretical these days.”

“What?”

“After the particle accelerator exploded, STAR labs was shut down, and it was difficult if not impossible for some of us to find work in our fields. We are all pariahs. No one wants to trust someone who was a part of making such a disaster. So we work mainly by consultation when people can get away without citing their sources,” Caitlin explained. “And I'm not really sure why I told you that.”

“We're friends,” Kara said. Then she winced, seeing the other woman's expression. “I mean, I remember us as friends. Barry came to National City, he helped me with a threat, and later, I came to help him with one. I met you. I met all of you. Cisco, Joe, Iris, Oliver, Felicity, Sara, Ray, Professor Stein, Jax, Dig—”

“You know who all of those people are?” Caitlin asked, frowning. “I don't... This is... I almost want to call the others back to tell them this. Cisco didn't pick up on any kind of meeting like that. He did find something about giving you a device that allowed for travel between universes, but that's still not the same.”

Kara frowned. “You're talking like... like that stuff was real. Aren't you supposed to tell me that I'm crazy?”

Caitlin grimaced. “Well, at least one of us thinks that, but the rest of us are still using the scientific method on you.”

“What?”

“We're still testing various hypotheses,” Caitlin explained. “We've done a few tests over the course of the night, but we still have a lot of questions. Do you mind answering them?”

“Well, that depends. If you're willing to hear me out and not lock me up, then yes,” Kara agreed. “If you're just listening to laugh at me when I'm done, then no. I really can't go through that again. I still can't believe Winn was like that here. He... it was like he was as evil as his father, only he wasn't. He was just a bit cruel.”

“I'm afraid I don't know a Winn.”

“Toymaker?” Kara aked. “Maybe that doesn't exist here, or maybe—”

“Oh, no, I... I believe I'm familiar with that one,” Caitlin interrupted, though she didn't say any more about that. She turned, picking up a tablet and pulling an image onto the screen. “I have run every test I can think of on this element, and I can't identify it. Do you know what it is?”

Kara swallowed. “I know what it is. Or what it is in my delusions. That's Kryptonite. It's my one weakness. It's the one thing that can kill me. It's... it's a fragment of a meteor that crashed here after my planet exploded.”

Caitlin blinked. “Your planet exploded? Was that the bomb that went off after Mon-El died? I wouldn't have thought that it could possibly have been strong enough to—”

“You know about Mon-El dying? I thought... no, he must have lived. I saw him. I saw him here. He's fine. He's alive. He's okay.”

“Our friend... um, Mike,” Caitlin stumbled over the name, “he is fine. I'm not so sure that applies to the Mon-El in your world.”

“What?”

“You may be more of an alien than you think. There's a possibility that you're not just from another planet. You're from another planet in another universe.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Valor encounters something weird at work that Kara thinks she's seen before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I have added a few things... a complication and also borrowed a fun character from somewhere else.
> 
> There is something building, and I hope that will be good and not the kind of let down I seem good at creating.
> 
> Also, I used [this site](http://www.scifiideas.com/alien-species-generator/) to generate an alien species and modified it accordingly. I just wanted a name, but the description was kind of perfect.
> 
> The chocolate thing was all me, though. I'm strangely proud of that.

* * *

“I know,” Kara said., sounding entirely too happy about what Caitlin just told her. That made her frown. Most people would at least pause a second at that. Even for someone who worked closely with the Flash, aliens and alternate universes could be hard to accept.

“You do?”

“I mean, I am. That's how we met. Barry came to my planet, he helped me fight Livewire and Silver Banshee. Well... according to what I've seen in my dreams. They're not all dreams. They are all delusions, or so the doctors tell me. They say that I made everything up. One day I was living some kind of ordinary life I didn't like, and then I snapped. Decided I was an alien from another planet, created this whole saga of a life where I had amazing powers and awesome friends, and my life was... incredible. So incredible that... well, I shouldn't believe it.”

“Oh,” Caitlin said, nodding as she turned away, gathering her thoughts. She took a breath and let it out before facing the other woman. “Kara, Barry has only ever gone to one other universe. Earth-2. That's what we call it. It's the earth closest to us, the one where Zoom was from and where Harry was—is—he and Jessie are back there now that it's safe, and Team Flash is down to its usual four members. Five—if you count Joe, which I usually do, but he likes to count himself out, so... it can be an interesting discussion.”

Kara frowned. “Wait. You're telling me that my delusions are real?”

“Possibly,” Caitlin said. She wasn't sure how to explain any of this. “It could be that you have some sort of meta ability that allows you to see glimpses of lives on other worlds, which would explain the memories that aren't memories. Though... they could still be memories, just... not from here. And not from an earth that any of us have ever visited.”

“No, I have been to Barry's earth. He and Cisco came for my help against the Dominators.”

Caitlin shook her head. “I know if we knew an alien with superpowers, we would have asked for help against the Dominators, but we didn't know one to ask. If your memories are real, you knew a different set of... us.”

“I don't understand. If this isn't the world where I know you, how did I get here?”

“We're not sure. At this point, it's just a theory,” Caitlin told her. “We don't know if you were always here but experiencing someone else's memories, or if you came here somehow. We think you may have had the ability to do that, but there's no way for us to know that's what you did. What is the last thing you remember of your life before you—well, before?”

“Before the memories end or before they locked me up for them?” Kara asked. She shook her head. “I'm not sure. A part of me thinks that the last one was the explosion, the bomb from Cadmus, but sometimes things get jumbled, and I'm not sure what to believe.”

“I understand that,” Caitlin said, not certain they'd be able to help her if they couldn't figure out where she really came from. It seemed less likely that she was a meta who saw other universes—her readings were more like Valor's than Cisco's, and if she was being suppressed, it was probably because she had the abilities she thought she did—ones that were apparently like his.

They really couldn't afford to take off the band that she wore. If she was as powerful as Valor, they might not be able to stop her again. No, they had to keep doing more tests, more vibes, anything to be sure of who and what she was.

That, and talking to her. Caitlin hadn't seen any reason to distrust her so far, and she liked her, but then she was not the best judge of character.

“Is there a way to find out?” Kara asked. “I... all this time, having them tell me I'm crazy—I'm not, though. It may seem impossible, but there is an explanation for what I've seen, isn't there? So what do I do to find out the truth?”

Caitlin bit her lip. She didn't know what would be enough. For Valor, maybe nothing. He wasn't happy with what Kara seemed to know, and knowing him, he'd fight against believing her until there was no denying it, and since there was no real way to prove any of it—even Cisco's vibes might not be enough.

“Caitlin,” Cisco's voice called over the intercom, “we need you in the command center.”

* * *

“One mocha latte with extra foam, whipped cream, and chocolate drizzle,” Valor said, handing the drink over the counter to the woman standing there. She took the cup, sipping from it. Then she smirked at him, and he forced a smile in return. She'd stared at him the entire time he made the thing, and while he normally didn't mind a good flirt, she was different.

She drank from her coffee, still watching him. He shook his head, moving over to the other end of the counter. He picked up a clean rag and started wiping down the espresso machine, aware that she had not looked away.

“Is this another one of your friend's experiments, Mike?” his coworker asked, wrinkling her nose as she frowned at the other woman. “Because she is starting to freak me out. Normally girls hitting on you is kind be of entertaining, but this? This is just creepy.”

“I know,” Valor said, feeling like he might need to get more information on this customer. If she was just the sort of person who came off wrong when they were trying to be cute or sweet. He sometimes thought that Barry was that way with Caitlin, but she seemed to forgive him—as well as make just as many blunders in return.

“It's not just her, though, is it? You've been kind of... off all morning,” Stephanie said, and he shrugged. She shook her head. “Come on, I know the difference between one of those Mike was up late partying nights and the something's eating at Mike days.”

“I'm fine.”

“Liar.” She leaned into his face. “You don't get to do that thing where you know when I'm having a bad day but deny that I know that you're having a bad day, because I so know.”

“First of all, everyone knows everything about you because you have no filter,” he told her, and she stuck her tongue out at him. “And I asked—inside voice does not mean what you think it means.”

She rolled her eyes. “The fact that you had to check is just so sad.”

“And yet most people believe you're natural blonde,” he said, getting a glare. He laughed, grinning at her. He stopped when he saw that woman was still staring at him. Okay, this was going beyond weird into creepy dangerous territory. She didn't look dangerous, but something was definitely off about her.

“Is it just me, or does she look like she's been Hattered?”

Valor frowned. “That is not even a word.”

“It is so a word where I'm from,” Stephanie said. He gave her a look, and she shrugged. “Okay, so you kind of had to be there, but she's got zombie written all over her, doesn't she? Her staring isn't like ogling because you're totally hot. She's staring like she's not even sure what she's doing.”

“She smirked earlier,” Valor told her. “I think that means she's aware of what she's doing.”

Stephanie shrugged. “This town has a Flash. Why not mind control?”

Valor grimaced. He knew there was such a thing as mind control, but the gorilla he knew that was capable of it was living happily with other intelligent apes. “Shouldn't you be over there taking orders?”

“Don't you want to know what's really going on with her? Most people at least sit down with their coffee.”

Valor did want to know, and he would have tried using his hearing to get answers, but the woman wasn't talking and Stephanie was too close even if she was. “Go. Work. Now.”

“I'd say you were no fun, but I know better. A lot better. You remember that time we went to that club with the—”

“Not work place appropriate.”

“Which time?”

“Every time,” he answered, and she laughed, going back to the register. He looked over at the woman again. He didn't see her lips moving, and he knew this was a bad, bad idea. Someone always started the steamer when he did it, and it hurt. Still, it was better than knowing nothing about her.

He focused on her, ignoring the other sounds in the room.

Either he was doing this completely wrong, or she didn't have a heartbeat.

* * *

“Dude, why do you have to go finding us _another_ crisis to deal with? We already have one, remember?” Cisco asked, paging Caitlin as he worked to access the security footage from Jitters. With Valor working there, they'd been sure to install a backdoor that made it easy to do, but it was still not what he was supposed to be doing right now. He should be working on vibing again, or maybe creating something that would let other people see what he vibed because then no one would doubt him. That would be good.

And he had some consulting to do, work he got paid to do.

“Like I wanted some crazy woman to come in and act like she is. I already want to get rid of the other crazy one,” Valor said. “No, Stephanie, I am not talking about you. Would you go do your actual job, please?”

Cisco smiled. Things always got interesting when Stephanie was involved. She was by far his favorite at Jitters, and since Valor worked there, that said a lot. 

“Remind me why I have a job again,” Valor muttered. “No, don't. I know the answer. Just... try and find out what you can about that woman.”

“Relax. I am running the scan now. Facial recognition should get us an answer soon. In the meantime... what exactly is hinky about her?”

“She won't stop staring and apparently doesn't have a heartbeat. She's had some of her coffee, but if she was drinking it as fast as she's pretending to, it would be empty by now. She's waiting for something and watching me, and it's starting to freak me out.”

“Agreed, that's weird. That's very weird,” Cisco said, shaking his head at the results. “Let me just get—no. That is not happening. Not again.”

“What?”

“Facial recognition just pegged her as a dead woman. So now you're going to say—”

“Zombie.”

“I hate that word,” Cisco muttered, wishing Caitlin would hurry. She was going to have to tell him he was wrong about this. They were not dealing with zombies. He pulled up another file, checking the date. “Okay, so... looks like the supposed date of her death was the day the particle accelerator blew, so we're dealing with some kind of meta here.”

“Without a heart?”

“I guess. You'd know if she was a robot, right? Not that robots drink coffee—if they did it would be awesome—but you'd hear her mechanical bits going, so she can't be a robot.”

“I don't think she's a robot.”

“You don't think who is a robot?” Caitlin asked as she came in the room. “Are we dealing with something like that kid's hologram?”

“Also awesome if it were true, but since the lady drank coffee, not a hologram,” Cisco said. “Clone? No, a clone would have a heartbeat.”

“The ones that Multiplex used were empty shells. They didn't have any higher function.”

Cisco grimaced. “Another replicator? I guess it's good that Barry has help this time. Still, didn't the clone thing from Multiplex at least pretend it was alive with the whole breathing and heart beating thing. Didn't they?”

Caitlin frowned. She went to the console, pulling up her data. “Is that the only one of her present? Is there any sign of some kind of instability?”

“Other than the staring?” Valor asked, snorting. “No. Though Stephanie insists that she's being mind-controlled.”

“Also possible.”

“What if she's alien?” Kara said, and Cisco turned back to look at her. He shook his head. She should not be here. What was Caitlin thinking? Then again, it wasn't like they'd locked Kara away in the meta prison, and if she was like Valor, she could probably break through most of their security anyway. “That's her, there, right?”

“Yes, but you are not supposed to be—”

“She could be Araimian. They're dependent on cybernetic implants, have no real 'brain' as humans do—and they hate all life,” Kara said. “Though she wouldn't have to be one. They just fit the bill—robotic, hive-mind, hate all life, love all chocolate—”

“Seriously?”

Kara shrugged. “If we trust my memories, which I'm not sure we do, that's how we caught a rogue on my earth. We tracked him using his chocolate consumption. When Araimians aren't carrying out orders from the hive, they're eating chocolate.”

“Right, and you people still think she's sane,” Valor muttered. “I have to go.”

“Wait, don't confront her yet,” Caitlin said. “Valor, please, we don't know what we're dealing with. You could get hurt or—”

“He already hung up,” Cisco said. “I'll call Barry.”

* * *

“You know, you probably compromised your identity a little,” Barry said. “What if she's not a meta human? We can't hold her, and she will know you're Valor because you weren't in your suit and you weren't wearing a mask.”

“You're not going to convince me that I need to wear something covering my entire head, so stop trying,” Valor muttered. “You want to go around looking like a Tell-a-tuba, go ahead.”

“Teletubby,” Barry corrected, not sure who or what had introduced their friend to that, and he really didn't want to know. He'd blame Stephanie. Or Cisco, but if it was Stephanie, then it wasn't someone from Team Flash. “And I do not look like one. Cisco thinks I look awesome. Caitlin says it's a bit sexy.”

“Cisco made the suit and Caitlin would find you attractive no matter what. She loves you,” Valor said, kneeling down next to the woman's body. “And, for the record—I didn't do this. I found her. Didn't hit her, though after the staring, I was tempted.”

“And she was just lying here, on the ground, unconscious?” Barry asked, joining him over the body. She didn't look very alive, but her chest seemed to be moving up and down, even if it was very slowly.

“Kara says that Araimians breathe less on this planet due to the oxygen saturation,” Cisco said in his ear, and Barry frowned. “Still doesn't make the woman an alien, but it's kind of cool.”

“Breathe less, eat chocolate, and want to kill the planet,” Barry said. “Great. That's just what we need. More hostile aliens.”

“You're still listening to her?” Valor asked. “What is wrong with you? This woman is probably a metahuman. Or the victim of one, and you're sitting there asking a lunatic for information on an alien species that doesn't exist?”

“We haven't ruled out the possibility that this woman is an alien, but we haven't made sure she's a meta, either,” Barry reminded him. He wanted to kick himself. He shouldn't have said any of that aloud, not with how strongly Valor felt about taking Kara's word on anything. “I'm going to take her back to STAR labs. Caitlin can run some tests, and we'll know what we're really up against.”

“What _you're_ up against,” Valor corrected, and Barry frowned. “Until that woman is gone, I'm not working with any of you. You're on your own.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team tries to help Valor cope with what he's learning about himself, and a few explanations are given.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess people will still be mad at Valor after this, but I did attempt to show his reasons for being the way he is.

* * *

_“You put fifteen of my men in the infirmary,” Eiling said. The general was angry again, but then from what he could tell, the general was always angry. His very existence made Eiling mad, and there wasn't anything he could do to stop it. Eiling grabbed his face, holding him up by the chin. “Look at me. I am going to make you pay for each and every bruise on them.”_

_He pulled his head out of Eiling's hands, rattling the chains as he did. “Let me go.”_

_Eiling snorted. “After what you did? Never. You're going to be my best weapon when I get done with you. I thought that gorilla showed promise, but no—you're the true prize. Finding you was just what I needed. With you, I'll build an army of unstoppable soldiers.”_

_He shook his head. “You can't.”_

_“Of course I can,” Eiling said, reaching over for his baton. “Whatever made you can make someone else. And you're going to tell me what that was.”_

_“I told you. I don't remember anything,” he said, though when he closed his eyes, he sometimes saw stars, whole clusters of them passing over his head. Or he heard the faint voice of someone teasing him about wanting the same story again—a woman, one he thought might be his mother—and then laughing as she started the tale._

_“You're lying,” Eiling said, turning on the wand's electric pulse before jabbing it in his side. Pain arced through him with the energy, and he cried out, unable to stop himself. “That was just the beginning. I know how much abuse your body can take.”_

_He wanted to argue with Eiling, tell him he had it wrong, that his body couldn't take any of this, but it had. He kept living when he should be dead, even after he'd been shot and swore it was coming._

_“Tell me how you got your abilities.”_

_“I don't know,” he said. He didn't remember them. He remembered a story and a feeling of warmth, happiness. She might have been holding him when she told him that tale. He wasn't sure. He never saw her face. Just heard a voice. The words seemed different somehow, but he didn't know. It was just a fragment._

_“Wrong answer,” Eiling said, hitting him again. “I suppose to a freak like you, this only tickles, but I've got time and a lot to make you feel. Fifteen men tossed like ragdolls. You say you didn't know, but you knew you'd hurt them.”_

_“You're hurting me,” he whispered, not looking up, not wanting to see that look on the general's face, so pleased with knowing he was in pain. “Please. I wouldn't hurt anyone if you let me go.”_

_“Not before I have my army,” Eiling said. “And you are going to give that to me.”_

_He shuddered, yanking on the chains. “Please. We... You already did this. You... beat me. Your men... beat me. They... You did... things to me... Things... I can't even name. I almost died. If I knew, don't you think I'd have told you already?”_

_Eiling laughed. “I think you think you're clever, putting on this helpless facade. We both know you can break these walls down if I let you go. That you could kill all of my men. Yet you pretend you're weak, that you're innocent. No one like you is innocent.”_

_“I didn't do anything,” he said. “I just.. I was trying to get out of here. They attacked me. I didn't know I'd hurt them that much.”_

_“That excuse might have worked the first time, but we both know you've tried to escape more than once,” Eiling said. He held up the stun baton. “If this doesn't jog your memory, maybe surgery will. Go in there, cut into your brain. Stimulate your memory from the inside.”_

_“That doctor... he said... permanent brain damage... you can't.”_

_Eiling smiled. “Brain damage would make you easy to control. No, you see, you're going to remember. And when you do, you will truly be mine.”_

* * *

“You're overreacting,” Barry said, reaching out to touch his friend's arm, try and calm him. Valor jerked back with his speed and strength, giving the building on the other side of the alley a bit of a bruise. “You just made my point there.”

“And yet despite promising me that you would actually think about your source of information, you haven't,” Valor said, shaking his head. “Just go. Take her off to STAR labs and leave me alone.”

“Not until we fix this.” Barry shook his head. “Look, I know you are afraid of what might be in your past, but we have been working on trying to find out just where Kara came from and how she fits into all of this. We've got tests going, we're monitoring her, Cisco has been vibing overtime, and we're asking questions. All things we need to do if we're going to understand what's happening. We think she may be from another universe, which could explain all the things she seems to know that she shouldn't.”

Valor folded his arms over his chest. “And if she's not? You want to assume that? What happens when you're wrong?”

“Then we fix it, but this paranoia—it's not like you,” Barry said, and for that he got a look. “Okay, yes, you're more like Joe when it comes to being suspicious of outsiders, especially compared to the rest of us who somehow still trust despite the fake Wells and the whole Zoom thing, but you've never taken it this far before. You've always stuck around, made sure we didn't get ourselves in trouble even though you knew we would and you were completely right about it. Both you and Joe. The point is, we need you. Someone has to temper our enthusiasm, and that's usually your job because as much as you like fun, when you distrust something, it's usually with good reason.”

“Which makes it all the more frustrating that you won't listen to me now,” Valor said, glaring back at him.

“Hey, Mike, the lunch rush just started and—oh, no. No, you have got this all wrong, Mr. Superfast Flash Person Thing,” Stephanie said, rushing over to them. “Whatever you think Mike did, he didn't do. He's a good guy. A bit too good looking for his own good, but he's not the only one I know who has that problem. At least he doesn't have the nickname Dick, too. I mean... That's not important. What's important is that Mike didn't do it. Whatever it is.”

Barry had to fight against laughing. Stephanie was great, always ready to defend a friend, and sometimes he thought she'd make an asset to their team if only for moral support, but they dealt with metahumans and that was not Stephanie's area of expertise.

“I was only asking a few questions,” Barry said, making sure his voice was vibrating as he spoke. “You can go back to work.”

“And let you pick on Mike?” Stephanie asked, shaking her head. That was funny, too, because in some ways, Valor should win every fight they had. Usually when they trained together, they came about about even, though Barry had suspicions about it. “I don't think so. He's having a bad day already, what with the creepy lady that now looks like she's dead and with the migraine he so won't admit he has—”

“You have one of your headaches?” Barry turned back to Valor. “One of _those_ headaches?”

“Does the Flash get migraines, too?” Stephanie frowned. “Wait, do you know him like in real life? Because that's kind of cool and yet—no one told me you knew the Flash but then I didn't tell you that I knew—”

“Inside voice,” Valor said, and she stopped, putting a hand over her mouth. “And no.”

Barry almost sighed. He knew better than that. Now he could see it all over his friend, the tension and the pain, his body's near invulernability warring with itself. They'd never been sure just how much damage Eiling had done to him, but the headaches were always bad when he remembered things, like PTSD on steroids—not that the condition wasn't bad enough on its own. That explained everything.

“You're coming with me,” Barry said, grabbing the stranger and his friend and rushing back toward STAR labs.

* * *

A flash of lightning rushed through the room and stopped, leaving a very grumpy sidekick in its wake before zipping over to the bed in the medical bay. Then it came back, standing outside the doors and looking human again.

“Cisco, lock the doors so our friend doesn't leave,” Barry said, and at first Cisco thought he meant the possible alien lying on the bed, but then he saw the glare Valor was giving him and knew he was wrong.

“Um, you guys want to explain what's happening?” Cisco asked, starting the lockdown anyway, since arguments on Team Flash could get a little messy if things weren't contained.

“He's got one of his memory headaches,” Barry answered, and Caitlin's eyes widened in what was close to panic for her. “I know we need to start figuring out what is going on with that woman and if she's really an alien or not, but I admit—I'd rather you checked out our friend first.”

Caitlin nodded, and Valor shook his head, muttering to himself. She rushed over to him, taking a penlight out of her pocket and shining it in his eyes. “How long have you had this one? Hours or days? Did you take anything over the counter for it? How bad is the pain? Are you seeing—”

“Caitlin, chill,” Cisco said. “Give him a chance to answer one of those questions, kay? Cool.”

She rolled her eyes, and Valor gave him the glare this time.

“How much pain?” Caitlin repeated, and Valor closed his eyes, giving in to the inevitable. Sooner or later, they all admitted things to Caitlin, even if they did not want to.

“It was maybe a dull ache until Barry showed up,” Valor said. “I was fine. I was working.”

“Yeah, but you have been on edge since she came into Jitters,” Cisco reminded him, pointing at the other possible alien, who was watching Valor like she was afraid he'd disappear if she took her eyes off him for a second.

“Stress does seem to be a factor in these headaches,” Caitlin said, twisting her lip. “And between Kara's arrival and this other strange woman, you are under plenty of that.”

“If Kara could give us enough signs that would prove this woman is an alien, do you think that would help?” Barry asked, looking like he wanted to jump in there and start the tests himself.

“No,” Valor said, shaking his head. “You're all trusting her, and she can't be trusted. She's... There's something wrong with her, something...”

He put his hands on the sides of his head, sliding down to the floor and curling up against himself. Cisco knew he shouldn't, he did, but he had to try again anyway. He went over to his friend's side, touching him.

He pulled back a second later, shuddering and feeling almost like he'd been burned. “Damn, I hate when it's Eiling or one of his lackeys. Those are images I straight up do not need. Though... I guess it explains a bit.”

“Explains what?” Barry asked, frowning. “We still don't know how Kara fits in, how that woman in there does, or what happened to any of them before they crossed our paths.”

“Yeah, but the lackey torturing our friend,” Cisco said, “that one was a woman. Kara over there shows up here, knowing things she shouldn't know but might have been able to find out from Eiling or someone in his program...”

“Right,” Barry said. “That would do it.”

“Someone tortured Mon-El?” Kara asked, horrified. “Was it Cadmus?”

“What exactly is Cadmus?”

* * *

“Cadmus,” Kara explained, not sure why she was so confident in her memories all of a sudden, though it was getting harder and harder to convince herself they weren't real when she saw Barry speeding into the room. “Is a secret organization dedicated to ridding Earth of all of its aliens. They have some kind of connections to either powerful people or even the government itself, despite the president's alien amnesty act. We haven't been able to track them down, though one of their leaders turned out to be Lena Luthor.”

“Are we supposed to know that name?" Cisco asked, frowning. “I don't recognize it, and I'm pretty sure I would. I'm the reference guy.”

“Luthercorp? Lex Luthor, billionaire and evil genius?”

“Not here,” Barry said. “Never heard of any Luthor except maybe some sports reference that I just did not get from either my dad or Joe.”

Kara nodded. She wished she could prove more of her memories, but she didn't think that would happen. She did want to help Mon-El, but she didn't know how. She seemed to be making him worse somehow.

“Well, in my world, they did kidnap Mon-El once. They held him prisoner, used him as bait. They shot him, and he almost died of lead poisoning, but my adoptive father helped us get away from him. They also unleashed a virus that was intended to kill all aliens on the planet. Mon-El was exposed, almost died. My adoptive mother was able to reverse its effects and save him. They are... horrible, horrible people.”

“Okay, what's with all the abuse of Mon-El—and what kind of a name is Mon-El, anyway?” Cisco asked, frowning. “Never mind. Point being, if they are so anti-alien, why him and not you?”

She grimaced. “I'm harder to reach. Mon-El fought off the Parasite without a costume, and plenty of people saw him, so he wasn't that hard to find outside a known alien friendly bar. Plus... his vulnerability is lead, which is all too common on our planet. Mine is Kryptonite, which is not all that common. It's a fragment from my homeworld, Krypton, that fell to Earth in a meteor.”

Cisco turned to Caitlin, and she nodded. “Interesting.”

“Why are you still listening to her?” Mon-El demanded, and then he moaned, making Caitlin run into the other room. She came back with a syringe and held it out in front of him.

“I want to give you this for the pain,” Caitlin told him. “It's not a sedative, won't put you to sleep but it might make you a little drowsy. Still trust me?”

He nodded, and she gave him the injection. He closed his eyes, resting against the wall and breathing hard. Kara bit her lip, trying to understand what she'd just seen.

“You didn't ask for my permission when you gave me drugs,” she said, and the others looked at her. She shrugged. “I get it, you don't know me, but still, it was a little weird.”

“He was experimented on, and since that is a huge part of his PTSD, he will only get worse if I push another trigger on him,” Caitlin explained. She touched Mon-El's cheek, and he leaned into her hand. Kara frowned, not liking how that sight made her feel.

“Last time Cadmus had him, they were only able to hold him for a couple days, but he still almost died,” Kara said, running her hands over her arms, uncomfortable. “How long did they have him here? Was it a long time?”

“Long enough,” Cisco muttered.

“Any time in Eiling's hand was too much time,” Caitlin said. She touched Mon-El's knee. “Anything yet?”

“Pain's a bit less now,” Mon-El said. “May have to throw up. Not sure yet.”

Kara winced. “If this is was Cadmus, if they did this—”

“Eiling's records never mentioned anything called Cadmus,” Cisco told her. “If he worked for them, he didn't name names. He also didn't include a lot of important information, like how he found Valor or where or any of that.”

“Why do you keep calling him that?” Kara asked, knowing that really wasn't the most important question she could be asking right now.

“Valor? It's his name,” Caitlin answered. “Well, for us. It's the one he uses when he helps Barry, but it's also the one that fits him best. Why do you ask?”

Kara shrugged. “It's just... that's the name of a legendary Daxamite leader. He actually stopped a Dominator invasion and forced them out of our solar system.”

“Huh,” Cisco said. “Guess that makes it even more fitting.”

* * *

“Don't start,” Valor muttered, not looking at any of them. “Cannot buy into... her crap.”

Caitlin sighed. She knew that he was hurting and no doubt afraid that his headaches would get worse than they already were, but she wished he could be a little more open minded about Kara's presence and what she might be able to tell them about his past.

“I think we should get you off the floor. You'd be a lot less cranky that way,” Cisco told him. “Come on. There's a nice chair right over here. Your favorite.”

“Stephanie thinks the Flash kidnapped me,” Valor said as Barry and Cisco helped him up and over to the chair. “Might want to do something about that.”

“We will,” Barry said. “I'm not going to let her think that the Flash is a bad guy. Not that she shouldn't know otherwise since bad stuff happens at Jitters way too often, but I'll fix it.”

“In the meantime, I think you should tell us just what Daxamite means,” Cisco said. “Daxam is a planet, right?”

Kara nodded. “Daxam is Krypton's sister planet. We shared the same sun. When Krypton was destroyed, the debris hit Daxam and its moon. Daxam's gravitational force was disrupted. The planet is... still there, but it was ravaged by solar storms. It's a wasteland now. Both of our planets, our homes... they're gone.”

“Dude, that's... so sad,” Cisco said, wincing. “I mean... wow. How did you survive?”

“My parents put me in a pod and sent me to Earth, wanting me to take care of my cousin, but my pod was knocked off course. He was already grown when I got to Earth. Having Mon-El's pod arrive gave me a second chance at that purpose.”

“Wait, Valor was a baby when you met him?”

“No, he was fully grown,” Kara said. “He just needed a lot of help learning how to blend in on Earth. I was still working on that with him when... when that explosion happened. I think.”

“Does any of that sound familiar?” Cisco asked, looking at Valor. “Anything at all?”

“My head is throbbing like I'm in the middle of a club playing dubstep, and you want me to actually pay attention to any of this?” Valor asked, rubbing his temple. “No. I don't remember it, and I want you to _listen_ to me for once—I don't _want_ to remember that.”

“You don't want to know who you are?” Kara asked, frowning. “Why wouldn't you want to know who you really are?”

He looked at her, shaking his head. “Why would I _want_ to remember being an alien whose planet apparently died? You just said everyone I ever knew and cared about is dead, and why the hell would _anyone_ want to remember that?"


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara learns more of what has gone on in this other universe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to do a bit more backstory here, so I did use the slight lull to have Cisco elaborate a bit more on something. I swear there are multiple novels worth of backstory for this one, but I can't write them all so I'll try and fill in pieces when I can.
> 
> This one I wanted to do. There's still plot, though.

* * *

_“You're feverish,” the doctor said, her hand on his forehead. He couldn't open his eyes to look at her, but he wanted to smile. She was the only one here who was kind to him. He didn't know her name. That didn't matter. He liked her. She made him feel like he might survive this place, like it might be worth it._

_“The general...”_

_“He promised me he wasn't going to hurt you again,” she said, sounding frustrated. He would have laughed. The general didn't keep his promises—not unless they were to make someone feel pain. He always did that._

_“I... think... am... dying.”_

_“No. We won't let that happen,” she said, moving her hand to his cheek. “You are too important for that.”_

_He shuddered, but she cooed at him, mumbling something he didn't understand but sounded like it was supposed to be reassuring. He could fall asleep now, knowing that he was safe—as close to safe as he got in this place. She was here. She wouldn't let anything happen to him. She protected him._

_“Tell me about the storyteller,” the doctor said, and he frowned. “You said before you remembered someone who spoke to you. She told you a story about a hero.”_

_“No,” he said, not sure why he would have told her about that. She was nice, but she was one of them. He couldn't tell them anything. Eiling wanted it, but he lied when he said the pain would end, and he didn't remember anything besides that woman's voice._

_“Was she your mother?”_

_“I don't know,” he said. He wanted to know, but he never heard her say who she was, who he was. She was just a voice. The doctor was just a voice sometimes, like now._

_“You know you have to be more cooperative,” she said, sounding stern, like he'd disappointed her. He didn't want to, but he couldn't do what she wanted, either. He didn't know. He didn't remember._

_“Tired... sick...”_

_“I know, but if you want me to help you, you need to help yourself. If you could only tell me what you remember, then all of this could end.”_

_He frowned. “You sound... like him...”_

_“I am trying to help you. He hurts you. I help. You know this.”_

_“Please...”_

_“You know I can only help you if you let me,” the doctor told him. “I told you about my son, didn't I? I told you how you reminded me of him, of how he used to be, how I'd care for him when he was younger.”_

_“I don't...”_

_“Let me help you. All you have to do is repeat what you said before... everything about the storyteller.”_

_“I didn't tell you anything.”_

_“You will,” she assured him. “You will tell me everything.”_

* * *

“Well, no, no one thinks that you should be okay with everyone being dead,” Cisco told Valor, shaking his head. They didn't mean that at all. No one thought that it was okay what happened to either planet, because it wasn't. That was wrong. So wrong. “That's beyond sad. It's tragic, okay?”

Valor looked over at him, and Cisco tried to force a smile, but it didn't really work. He couldn't be reassuring right now. He wanted to be, but it wasn't really his thing, much as he wanted it to be sometimes. That was more Caitlin or Joe. Even Barry. And Barry's dad was pretty awesome about it.

“Still, we have wanted to find a way to recover your memories since we first met you,” Caitlin said, and Valor's eyes snapped to her in a panic. “We should try to—”

“Um, maybe we should back off the whole memory recovery conversation. He's remembering that whole evil fake doctor who pretended to be his friend thing—or at least, that was the vibe I got off of him—and that means just being in the room with you is stressing him out, even if he knows he can trust you.”

Caitlin grimaced. She had come a long way in gaining Valor's trust, but there were plenty of times when that vanished because of the past. Eiling and his cronies had really messed Valor up, and the fact that he was able to pretend that he was a happy go lucky barista most of the time, that was also very messed up.

“Okay, let's just...” Barry swallowed, trying to think his orders through. “Why don't we let Valor lie down for a bit? Then Caitlin can work on figuring out what is up with this woman, he can rest, and Cisco can keep vibing with Kara to find out more of her world—”

“And you can go back and explain to Stephanie that she did not see the Flash abduct Valor,” Caitlin said, and Barry grimaced. “It's important, Barry. You know that you can't afford misunderstandings like that but also—Stephanie is a friend. A friend we have even discussed telling the truth about Team Flash.”

Kara frowned. “I've never heard of any Stephanie. And—where is Iris?”

“Iris?” Barry asked, frowning.

“Joe's daughter?” Kara prompted, and just about everyone rolled their eyes. They knew who Iris was. They just didn't know why Kara knew her or why she thought Iris would be here. Iris knew of the Flash, sure, everyone did, but she didn't know that _Barry_ was the Flash. “Your girlfriend?”

“Girlfriend?” Caitlin turned to Barry and he shook his head, guilty.

“You know she's not. Come on, Caitlin. That might be true in Kara's world, but here Iris and I... we tried that after high school. It didn't work out. She became a cop, moved away. And she's married and has kids and—”

“You are way too easy, man,” Cisco said. “She gets you with that _every_ time. And I do mean every time. Just one little look, that right tone of voice, and you start apologizing for everything in the universe. Even things Caitlin knows have been over for years.”

Caitlin smiled, and Barry sighed. She went over to him. “In your defense, you're very cute when you do. And it doesn't actually happen as often as Cisco is implying it does.”

“Cisco exaggerates every interaction you two have ever had,” Valor agreed, hand on his head. Cisco gave him a look. “Just because you refuse to bring your girlfriend around us so that you can annoy everyone with PDQs doesn't mean you have to get bothered by them all the time.”

“PDA,” Cisco corrected. “And I choose not to expose her to the insanity that is this city, okay? I want to keep her safe. Even if that means she doesn't know the important people in my life in person yet. That'll happen. I've got plans.”

“Are you sure you're not making her up?” Kara asked. “Because there was this time that Winn did that because he was in love with me and he didn't want me to know and—”

“She's real, okay? She is very, very real,” Cisco said, defensive. Never in all the time that he'd been dating had his friends ever accused him of lying about the existence of his significant other. “I'm not so sure I like you.”

“You're in good company,” Valor told him, rising from his chair and almost falling over. Kara rushed over to catch him, holding him up. He frowned at her, looking like he wanted to shove her halfway across the room. Fortunately for her, he wasn't up to that right now. “Hands off.”

“I'm trying to help.”

“And I don't want your help,” he said, righting himself and pulling away from her. “I told you—I don't trust you.”

“I'm not going to—”

“Kara, he has heard that before, and it was a big fat lie,” Cisco said. He went over to Valor's side. “Come with me now. I've got a nice spot picked out for you. Nice and quiet, plenty dark, and the air conditioning is on the fritz so you'll have almost all the things they recommend for migraines.”

Valor nodded, letting himself lean on Cisco. He lead him down the hall, toward the barracks. That was still one of the best ideas Cisco had ever had, coming in handy for all those late night crime fighting sessions. They almost didn't need to go home.

“You call us if you need anything, okay?” Cisco said as Valor sat down on the bed closest to the door. “Maybe we shouldn't leave you alone—”

“Cisco. You talk too much.”

“Yeah, sure. I'll come check on you in a couple hours.”

* * *

“You can ask,” Cisco said, and Kara frowned. He smiled. “Come on. I know you have questions. Even if you knew us in another universe, you would still have questions about us. I know I've got them. At least one thing that you said was definitely different here from where you were. And... well, you did seem very concerned about my friend.”

Kara bit her lip. She knew that was true, but for some reason, she didn't want to admit to it. “How is Mon-El?”

“Sleeping it off,” Cisco said. “Or trying to. It doesn't always work, but it can help. Besides, when he's like this—he really doesn't want to be around people.”

Kara nodded. That made sense. Mon-El didn't like to admit weakness, wouldn't want anyone to see him in pain. Still, she'd like to see him for herself. She didn't know why she felt such a strong pull toward Mon-El. He was relatively new in her memories, compared to everyone else. Alex was her sister, Jeremiah and Eliza her parents, Kal-El her cousin, and James was her friend. Winn was, too, but it was different here. That Winn was not her friend. He wasn't anyone's friend. It was wrong that he'd been corrupted somehow. She wanted to fix that, but she wasn't sure she could.

“How did you meet Mon-El?” Kara asked. “Was it when his pod landed?”

“Pod?”

“On my Earth, when J'onn and I found him, he was in a pod that had just crashed down. It was Kryptonian, so we thought that was where he was from at first, but then we learned he wasn't,” Kara explained. “Did you find the pod?”

“No,” Cisco said. He grimaced. “We actually just assumed that he was a metahuman. He didn't remember, he had powers, Eiling had him... It kind of fit. We'd never heard about Cadmus before you came along, and while yeah, we had some aliens, none that were human enough to make us think that Valor wasn't.”

“And... why Valor?”

“Oh, now that is a good story,” Cisco said. He pulled her over to the nearest chair, helping her to sit. Then he dragged another one over, taking it himself. “So... Do you know anything about Firestorm? Because if you don't, I'll have to explain about him first.”

“That's Professor Stein and Jax,” Kara said. “They join together and become Firestorm. He can fly, he has fire... It's nuclear, right? I didn't get all the details. Alex would have, but we didn't have a lot of time before we started training and then it was just fighting after that, almost the entire time.”

“Okay, so you know that part. You know about Ronnie?”

Kara winced. “Yes. He was part of Firestorm before Jax.”

Cisco nodded. “Then we're about up to speed. This starts with Professor Stein's research. Eiling confiscated it. He knew what the professor was up to, and as soon as he found out that Stein survived the particle accelerator, he went after him. Well... he went after both him and Ronnie, but they only caught Ronnie because Stein took his wife and daughter out of town. He ended up coming back after he realized what had happened to Ronnie.”

“Eiling tortured him, too?”

“He did,” Cisco said. “I hate Eiling. Still, that wasn't much of an excuse for what happened to him when Grodd got him, but that isn't the story we're telling. No, this story is about our first meeting with Valor. See, when we stormed Eiling's compound—and by we I really mean Barry but we were on the comms—we found signs of other prisoners. In fact, one of them had used Eiling's distraction to free himself and some of the other prisoners. Okay, so we weren't thrilled that he let a gorilla with mental abilities loose, but that came later. We didn't actually know that Grodd was there.”

“But you met Valor?”

“Technically, we met a blur. Barry came up on someone about to carry Ronnie away from a very unconscious Eiling, but he disappeared in a blur,” Cisco explained. “So we thought that maybe we had another speedster on our hands, but the only one we knew of was the Reverse Flash. So we thought at first he was evil.”

Kara winced. “That actually seems kind of familiar.”

“Oh?”

“Well, Daxamites and Kryptonians didn't get along. When Mon-El crashed, there was an alien trying to kill the president, and I assumed that it was Mon-El because he was a Daxamite. That was my only reason.”

“Ah. Gotcha,” Cisco said. “Well, so... you want to hear what makes Valor Valor?”

Kara smiled even as he winced in how he'd just said that. “Yes.”

“Then I'll tell you. We had reports of this large gorilla terrorizing the city, and we went after him. We almost lost Joe. And Barry was sitting there, trying to duel it out with this giant gorilla with mind powers who had already whammied him once. We're talking epic fight. He went to use the supersonic punch—”

“Ouch.”

“And... that is where our story really starts.”

* * *

_The supersonic punch didn't work._

_The gorilla caught him. His fist stopped him, holding him in place for a second before throwing him to the side. Barry rose, forcing himself up, and the gorilla watched him. Barry waited, thinking he was about to be whammied again._

_Nothing happened._

_“The headset's working,” Barry said, relieved. He had been afraid it wouldn't work, and he'd be at the gorilla's mercy again. He didn't want that, not ever. It was horrifying, even if it was only a few images. Eiling had been worse, dominated as he was, and Barry didn't want that to be him._

_“Try some speed punches on him,” Cisco advised._

_Barry ran around the ape, trying to pound on him over and over, but the gorilla didn't even flinch. He wasn't hurting him, wasn't doing anything. “This isn't working.”_

_Grodd grabbed Barry by the throat, cutting off his air. He hurled Barry through the wall, breaking it to pieces. Barry landed on the tracks, hard, and he needed a minute to get back up. When he did, he saw the pictures in his head._

_He covered his head, trying to stop the pain._

_“Human. Weak.”_

_“Barry's brain activity is off the charts,” Caitlin said, and he heard her over the comms, wanting to reach for her, but he couldn't get to her. He couldn't respond. His head hurt. “It's even worse than last time. Grodd's attacking him psychically. He's paralyzed. Cisco... There's a train coming.”_

_She seemed panicked, but all he could do was feel the pain of the surgeries. Grodd's memories hurt. He didn't know how to push them out._

_“Barry, I can't stop the train,” Cisco said. “You have to get out of there, now.”_

_“Please,” Caitlin said. “We need you. You have to fight this. You're stronger than anything life has done to you. Your mother's death. Your father's arrest. Being struck by lightning—”_

_“Grodd,” another voice said, one Barry didn't recognize. “Grodd, look at me. That's it. Remember me?”_

_The gorilla growled, but Barry could feel the pressure easing between Caitlin's words and the newcomer distracting Grodd._

_“You. Let. Out. Cage.”_

_“I did,” the other man agreed. “Now you need to let this one go. He's not your enemy, Grodd. He didn't hurt you. He's not like Eiling.”_

_“Eiling. Bad.”_

_“Yes, Eiling was bad. The Flash is not bad,” the man said, and Barry felt enough of the gorilla's hold loosen so he freed himself, zipping out of the way of the train._

_“Guys, I'm back,” he said. “I don't know what—”_

_“Barry,” Caitlin said with relief. “I am sorry I babbled on like that. It was all I could think of to try and help.”_

_“It's okay,” he said. “I think it did help. Look, guys, I need some way of fighting this thing.”_

_“I don't know,” Cisco said. “The sonic punch didn't work, speed punches didn't—he's stronger than you, and he's not some meta we can out-science. You're out of the mind control. You can try and fight again, but I'm not sure what you can do.”_

_“I have to try,” Barry insisted. “I'm the only one who can stop this thing.”_

_He ran toward the gorilla only to find another man in his path. He stopped, coming up a few inches shy of the stranger. Barry frowned._

_“What are you doing? Grodd is taking over people's minds. He's committing crimes. I have to stop him. You need to get out of my way.”_

_“You don't have to fight him.”_

_Barry shook his head. “He's not going to come in willingly.”_

_“No, he'd be stupid to do that,” the other man said. He turned back to the gorilla, giving him a smile, of all things. “Do you remember the story I told you?”_

_“Story. Good. You. Stay.”_

_“I will,” the other man said, sitting down next to the gorilla. “The Flash is going to go get his friend, and you and I... we're going to tell stories again. All the stories I know.”_

_“Are you offering yourself in exchange for Joe?”_

_The other man laughed. “All Grodd wants is for people to stop hurting him. You leave him alone, he'll leave you alone.”_

* * *

“Did Valor really save Joe and Barry from a giant gorilla with a story?”

“Cisco told you that?” Caitlin asked, picking up a syringe and drawing some more of the strange woman's blood. So far none of her tests had picked up on anything, but that didn't mean that Kara was wrong about her being an alien. Something was definitely wrong—Caitlin couldn't find any explanation for why she wasn't conscious.

“I know we were supposed to be doing more vibes, but I managed to get him talking about Valor instead—at least until one of those alarms went off and he said he had to help Barry,” Kara told her. “He said it was why Valor got his name.”

“Well, not entirely,” Caitlin said. “It also had to do with what he did tell Grodd and then the next time we met him. Barry had this... not so smart idea to have a few criminals transport the metahuman prisoners we had to another facility when Wells—fake Wells—turned the particle accelerator on again. Cold and the others turned on him. And just as all of the prisoners were about to go free, out of nowhere came a very mad gorilla and his friend.”

Kara stared at her. “The gorilla fought him, too?”

“No, Grodd helped us. He had a bond with Wells that Wells exploited, but Valor had been the one in the cell next to him. He had been experimented on, too, and when Valor stayed with him, he managed to reach him again so that Grodd didn't go back to Wells.”

“So you got Mon-El and a telepathic gorilla to help you?”

Caitlin nodded. “With their help, the rogues were recaptured and shipped off to Lian Yu.”

Kara put a hand to her head. “Wow. I don't... How could Mon-El have even known? And he just... helped? On my Earth, Alex had to go bully him into helping fight the Parasite. Here, he just showed up? Just like that?”

“He's Valor,” Caitlin said with a smile. That heart of his was special, even if he thought it wasn't. “He usually tries to avoid getting involved and lets Barry do most of the hero work, but if he or Oliver need anything, Valor is there.”

“But if Grodd stayed with you—”

“Harry told us about a place with intelligent apes, like Grodd. Valor asked him if he wanted to go, and he did. It was kind of hard on Valor, but we didn't have a good place to house Grodd, not like he deserved.”

Kara nodded. “I didn't see anything appropriate for a gorilla when I was at STAR labs before. Of course, I wasn't there for long, didn't see everything... Is it—I keep talking like all of my memories are real. I know we have an explanation for that, but how can it be right if I don't have my powers?”

Caitlin tried not to grimace. The powers would probably be back if they removed the band on Kara's wrist, but as much as that might lay to rest some doubts, it wasn't something they could do without being sure. Valor was already upset—terrified—by how much trust they'd placed in Kara. To leave them with no way to counter powers as strong as hers—Valor wasn't up to fighting her if she turned on them, and unless he was, Caitlin knew she couldn't remove the band.

Even if she wanted to and thought Kara was who she said she was and it went against every bit of her that said do no harm to keep the band on.

“I think we're still missing pieces to the puzzle,” Caitlin told her, and Kara seemed to accept that, which was likely helped by the arrival of another person. She heard the door open and turned. “What are you doing out of—you look ten times worse. What is it?”

Valor put his hands over his ears. “Some kind of buzzing. Was quiet at first, but it's louder. Won't stop. Thought it would go away if I left the other room...”

“If it was something in that room causing it, it should have gotten quieter and be gone now,” Caitlin said, frowning.

“Cadmus would broadcast messages to me at high frequencies, ones higher than dogs could hear,” Kara said, and he looked at her, frowning, but too pained to do much else. “They could be doing that now.”

“There's no words,” he disagreed. “Just... noise.”

“If the intent was to overwhelm your superhearing, it's working, though as far as I know, no one who knows about that ability would do anything to hurt you with it. Only a handful do, and why would anyone from Team Arrow to that?” Caitlin asked, frowning. She shook her head. “I don't believe that they would. Eiling's files don't mention anyone being aware that you had enhanced hearing.”

“Didn't tell them. Tried not to... not tell anything,” he said, leaning against the wall, and Caitlin reached for another dose of painkillers only to stop and stare.

“Caitlin?”

“What is—oh,” Kara said, her eyes now on the woman from the other bed, who was definitely awake and moving. “That sound... it was the Araimians activating her, wasn't it?”

“Possibly.”

That became definitely when the woman ripped the bed from the floor and threw it across the room at them. Valor rushed across the room, pulling them both out of its path, only to stop by the desk with a groan, covering his ears again and writhing in pain.

“He can't fight like this,” Kara said, eyes shifting between Valor and the woman across the room. “What are we going to do?”


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team works to counter one possible alien and learn more about the others.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm tempted to put a note at the end of this one, just to explain a few things that I don't necessarily want to spoil. I don't know that it's important, though I'm pretty sure some people will be disappointed in this one. Not that I think the chapter is terrible. I just think it won't be what they expect.

* * *

Kara gave Mon-El another glance as she tried to figure out to do. With her memories validated, she knew she could help—but her powers still weren't back. She made sure of that—testing with a heat glare and frost breath, neither of which worked. She felt as helpless as she had after Red Tornado, during the earthquake. She couldn't do anything, though at least this time her arm wasn't broken.

She knew she'd been able to make a stand as a symbol then, using her reputation to stop that robbery, but this alien didn't know her, and she didn't have a costume here, either.

“If I had my powers,” Kara began, but then she looked at Mon-El, who was still covering his ears and unable to stop the pain. “I'd be like him, wouldn't I?”

Caitlin didn't answer, and Kara frowned, starting to rise when the Araimian froze in place, covered in ice. Kara wanted to believe it was her own ability doing that, but she wasn't even trying to use it. She turned to Caitlin.

“You have powers?”

“I rarely need them, but yes, I have them,” Caitlin answered, and Kara knew she was staring. The other woman frowned. “I take it I didn't have them when you met me?”

“No,” Kara said. “They did talk about an alternate you who was evil and had ice powers. Killer Frost. I don't understand. If she was evil—”

“Being evil isn't tied to being a metahuman. Granted, a lot of the ones we know are bad, but it isn't an automatic sentence—and things are rarely black and white like that,” Caitlin   
said. She gave the Araimian another glance before going to Mon-El.

She knelt down next to him. “Valor?”

“I think... getting louder...”

Caitlin nodded. “I froze the woman, so if they're giving her commands, she can't fulfill them. They might be amplifying the signal. I'll get Cisco on it. If he can interrupt it or track it—but we need to do something for you—”

“Sedate.”

Caitlin stared at him. “No. You hate that. You wake up confused and have horrible dreams and you don't—”

“Verglace,” he said, and Caitlin nodded, reaching for a syringe and preparing a dose. She put it against his skin, and he hissed in pain, but then the needle went inside. He stilled, and Caitlin held him for another minute before setting his head down on the floor. She rose, going to the desk and activating the comm.

“Cisco, we need you—and probably Barry—in the infirmary.”

Kara looked over at Mon-El. “I thought he was invulnerable except to lead.”

Caitlin nodded. “He is, but I have syringes made with lead needles for him. I can't always ask for permission or find a quick source of lead to expose him to if I need to treat him. I also have no idea how long that ice will last on her.”

“I'm not sure. I never froze any of the Araimians,” Kara admitted. She frowned. “I still don't understand why my powers aren't working—I guess I should be grateful for that or I'd be waiting a sedative right now that you couldn't give me as I don't think you have any Kryptonite around.”

“We'll have to address that later,” Caitlin said, twisting her lip as she spoke. “Sometimes I wish Cisco had Barry's speed. I could have explained everything to him over the comms, I guess...”

“What's Verglace?” Kara asked, and Caitlin tensed, staring at her. “He said that, and you gave into him when you didn't want to sedate him. Why?”

Caitlin blushed. “I'm Verglace. It's the name we finally settled on after months of debate and some unhelpful suggestions from Cisco. Valor picked it because it was a word that involved my powers and went along with his. He said it reminded him of a story, but he doesn't know which one. I just... When Barry, Cisco, and Wells went to Earth-2, Valor and I stayed behind. Barry wanted someone here to protect our world when they rescued Jessie. So we were a team. Valor and Verglace. It was not my finest hour.”

Kara rubbed her head. “I thought Barry told me about Zoom being there on your earth pretending to be Jay Garrick when he was actually Hunter Zolomon...”

Caitlin laughed. “Ah, yeah. He didn't last long. Kind of hard to lie with a human lie detector around who really didn't like Jay. Hunter. The guy set off all of Valor's warning bells, a lot like you've done—which isn't to say that you're evil, just that he was paranoid before, and he was right. He saved us from... well, I prefer not to think about all of that, especially since it still creeps me out to think of how much he hit on me when he first came around.”

“Are you sure Valor wasn't just jealous?” Kara said. “I mean, he was right about not trusting Zoom, but what if he was doing it because he was jealous of the man's interest in you?”

“Kara, Valor sees me as a sister. I don't know if it's because I took care of him or because he is afraid to really get involved with someone without a memory, without knowing if he had someone to go home to—he's afraid what Eiling did to him made him incapable of love, but he does care deeply for all of us. He loves. He's just not _in_ love.”

Kara grimaced. She supposed she sounded jealous, getting that speech from the other woman. She was glad to see Cisco come into the room.

“Dude, you made an icicle.”

“If you start singing songs from Frozen again, you can join her,” Caitlin said, and Cisco held up his hands in surrender.

“Okay, no going to the dark side now,” he said, and Caitlin snorted. “So, I take it she woke up and—damn, what happened to Valor? He was supposed to be resting. Please tell me she didn't do that to him.”

“She didn't. I did. I had to sedate him,” Caitlin explained, filling him in on the rest of it, the frequency and the activation of the Araimian. “We need you to find a way to block the frequency.”

“Sure,” Cisco said. “Though it'll be a bit hard to know if I've done it or not without someone who can tell me if they hear it.”

“I'd do it,” Kara said, wanting to spare Mon-El more pain. “Except... none of my abilities are working here.”

She saw Cisco and Caitlin exchange a look. Caitlin shook her head, and he nodded, going over to the desk. “First I'll start with a multi-frequency jammer. I built something similar when Hartley was around, but I need something more enhanced, I think. I'll get it up and running while he's out. When he's back on his feet, we can see if it actually worked.”

“Do you think you could trace the signal back to the source?” Kara asked. “If we knew where it was, we could find who is behind this and stop them. It's possible she's not Araimian. Or she's being controlled by someone that isn't a part of her hive-mind. It could be Cadmus. Or this Eiling you keep talking about.”

“I think so,” Cisco said. “But for that I'm going to need a specific frequency to look for—again, when he wakes up. Hey, since Barry kind of got sidetracked on his mission to reassure Stephanie that he's not a kidnapper, why don't you go let her know? She'll understand if you tell her he's under your care.”

“I think we could use some fresh air,” Caitlin agreed. “Though—what if she gets out of the ice and starts rampaging again?”

Cisco picked up another tool. “Setting phasers to stun.”

* * *

“Caitlin!” Stephanie called, almost jumping over the bar in her excitement to get to her. She gave her a big hug. “So I know I have to hear the official 'we do not know the Flash' speech, but everyone knows that you got kidnapped because of him more than once so... yeah, not going to buy it, but you can still tell me that he didn't really kidnap Mike. Not that I told anyone that—I told them that Mike got one of his headaches and a friend took him home. That's true, isn't it?”

“Technically almost true,” Caitlin corrected. She went back and forth over letting Stephanie in on their secret, as did the whole team. She was a good friend, a scrappy little fighter who'd surprised everyone a few times, but then there was something that held them all back, something about Stephanie that didn't quite line up right. “He's resting now, and we're hoping when he wakes up, he'll be a lot better.”

“He'd better be,” Stephanie said. “He's not allowed to ditch us during lunch rush without consequences.”

Caitlin shook her head. “You know he'll retaliate, and it'll just get worse.”

“I know,” Stephanie grinned. “It'll be fun.”

“That's a strange way of having fun,” Kara commented. Stephanie looked at her, frowning. Then she turned back to Caitlin.

“This is a friend of ours from out of town,” Caitlin said. “Kara Danvers, Stephanie Brown. Stephanie, Kara. Stephanie here is what Mike likes to call Jitters' second best barista.”

“First,” Stephanie corrected. “He might be slightly faster, but I swear somehow he cheats.”

Kara laughed. Caitlin had to smile, knowing exactly how Valor could have cheated.

“I'm almost done for today, but I'll make your drinks and join you for a bit,” Stephanie said. “My evening class got canceled. You want to make it a girls night?”

Caitlin grimaced, thinking of the woman back in the lab. “I can't.”

“Ooh,” Stephanie said, grinning. “Big plans with Barry, huh? Where is he taking you for this anniversary? She told you about that, right? Barry takes them out for every month's anniversary. Does a production of the whole thing.”

“He does?” Kara asked, staring at Caitlin. She grimaced, wondering if it was that hard to for her accept that Iris wasn't Barry's girlfriend here. She knew she'd felt it like a kick in the gut when she'd heard that Barry and Iris were married on Earth-2. And that damned byline.

At least their Iris wasn't a reporter, and while she could still divorce her husband, that didn't seem very likely.

“It's a cover,” Caitlin explained as Stephanie went back behind the counter. “We're actually very low-key, but sometimes Barry needs an alibi for where he was when Flash related stuff happened, and I am kind of... it. Not that I mind.”

“Of course not,” Kara said, smiling back at her. Caitlin wondered if she was still convinced that there was something between her and Valor. She supposed that was the trade-off. She worried irrationally about Iris, and Barry worried about Valor.

Though, if Caitlin's suspicions were right, Kara felt a lot more than friendship for the man she called Mon-El.

Who was apparently dead on her world.

Caitlin shuddered. She never wanted to see that day. Valor had come into their lives when they needed help the most—not long after Wells' betrayal—and he was a friend and a brother. She knew she'd never be the same if she lost him.

“One coffee fit for a queen,” Stephanie said, holding out the usual for Caitlin. “What did you want? I'm so used to Caitlin's, I made it out of habit, but I didn't even ask you.”

“Pumpkin latte with extra foam and cinnamon on top,” Kara said, and Stephanie grinned, going back to work. “I suppose we should get back to STAR labs. Maybe Mon-El is awake now.”

“You might want to try calling him Mike.”

“None of the rest of you do.”

Caitlin grimaced. That was true. “We met him without a memory. Giving him a civilian identity came long after we'd already established what he was outside it. It's easy to call Barry Barry because he's still Barry. And Cisco will always be Cisco. Valor has always been Valor.”

Kara nodded. “I suppose I can see that.”

Stephanie came back with two drinks this time, handing one to Kara and keeping the other for herself. She was sipping from it when the door opened again and she let out a squeal before rushing to greet the newcomer.

“Tim! What are you doing here?”

“Let me guess,” Kara said. “Girls night is canceled.”

Caitlin laughed. “Well, we couldn't have done it anyway, but she'll never even know we left if we go now. Not that Tim isn't a nice kid—has a mind like you wouldn't believe—but it's better if we slip away before he can ask us any questions.”

“I'd rather be where Mon-El is anyway.”

“I am curious, though, so maybe on the drive back you can tell me—what is the story behind that Daxamite prince Valor you mentioned?”

* * *

_“And so, Valor stood upon the high tower, looking down at his people, his ravaged city. It was scarred and some would say ruined, but he saw beauty everywhere he looked. His people had survived. They had won. They fought back the invaders. This was home once again, and they had made it safe.”_

_“Tell it again,” he said, rewarded with the most beautiful laughter he'd ever heard. She must have her arms around him, and he delighted in her warmth, in feeling so close to her, so safe, as Valor had made his people._

_“Aren't you tired of that story,_ kal?” __

_“Never. Again. Tell it again.”_

Valor lifted his head off the floor, wincing as he did. The buzzing was gone, and that was a relief, but the headache lingered, and he didn't want to think about what he'd just been remembering. He wasn't sure if that proved that his memory of the storyteller meant she truly was his mother, or if he was twisting it into that because he wanted something to hold onto now that everything he knew was gone again.

Oh, his friends were still here. They still offered to support him, but he didn't know what to think of being an alien or any of the rest that Kara claimed. He was a hero here, of sorts, not like the Flash, but when the Flash was unavailable or when the Arrow had to deal with something otherworldly, he'd helped.

“If you're feeling better, I think I can count it as a win,” Cisco said. “Frequency jammer seems to be working.”

“Thank you,” Valor said, and Cisco smiled as he held out a hand to him. “I know... been difficult...”

“Shh,” Cisco said. “You saw me when I lost it over Dante, right? None of us is in any place to judge. And we're all excited to maybe find your past, but you're scared, and you have a right to be.”

“I don't think I want to be an alien.”

“Hmm. Tough choice. Not sure if I'd want to be one,” Cisco said. “I mean, I could see how your powers have some appeal. You're fast, strong, and durable. Minus the lead thing. Still, I've got some killer awesome powers, too, and I'm not alien. Wait, what if we're all aliens and—”

“Cisco,” Valor cut him off before that talk got too far again. He wasn't in the mood, even if he'd almost started it. “I—Caitlin must froze that thing hours ago. Shouldn't it be... moving now?”

“Seeing as how it doesn't seem to function without something commanding its higher functions, I'm not surprised it hasn't moved. I've got it blocked, so even though the ice has worn off, the paralysis hasn't. Until it gets new orders, it's not going anywhere.”

“That's creepy.”

“Yeah.” Cisco shook his head. “We can lock it—her—up, but it's harder to stomach than locking away a crazed metahuman that rampaged the city. She's a shell. A freaky one.”

“Don't say that to Barry. He'll want to free her.”

“He's going to want to help her whether we set her free or stop her controllers. That's who Barry is,” Cisco reminded him. “Speaking of things you don't want to discuss—”

“I am not talking about Kara—”

“You were muttering to yourself about telling the story again,” Cisco said, and Valor winced. “Another dream of the storyteller, huh?”

Valor stared at him. “Cisco, did you vibe me?”

“Yeah.”

Valor swallowed. A part of him didn't want to know. A part of him did, more than anything. This wasn't Kara and her knowledge from another world. This was Cisco. A friend. “What was it?”

“Pretty sure she was your mom. And she was really beautiful. She looked at you like... like you were her entire world.”

“That's it?” Valor asked. “Not that a face wasn't more than I had, but you're standing there acting like you're holding something back because it will upset me, and if you are, then you have to just tell me.”

“She wasn't speaking English,” Cisco admitted. “Whatever language that was... I've never heard it before.”


End file.
